Entropy generation for a distributed computing system

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a method generates first entropy using a true random number generator in a management computer configured to manage a main computer in a computing device. The main computer controls a set of physical nodes including a set of services running in a set of virtual machines. The method then provides the first entropy to the main computer and the first entropy is combined with second entropy generated by the main computer to generate third entropy. The third entropy is provided to the set of physical nodes where the set of virtual machines access the third entropy via a hypervisor.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in thissection are not prior art to the claims in this application and are notadmitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Computing systems require entropy, which may be random numbers, for usein certain applications, such as cryptography or other applications thatrequire random data. When a single computing device is used, thegeneration of entropy may be performed using hardware random numbergenerators or pseudo-random software random number generators. Entropyis a time-based finite resource meaning that there is a limit to howmuch entropy can be generated over time. However, when a computingsystem is static and not expandable, generally the computing system doesnot run out of entropy. For example, a pseudo-random software randomnumber generator may be sufficient to generate the entropy. However,when a distributed computing system is used where the expansion of thecomputing system may be performed on demand, it is possible that entropymay become constrained when a large number of computing devices areadded to the system.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method generates first entropy using a true randomnumber generator in a management computer configured to manage a maincomputer in a computing device. The main computer controls a set ofphysical nodes including a set of services running in a set of virtualmachines. The method then provides the first entropy to the maincomputer and the first entropy is combined with second entropy generatedby the main computer to generate third entropy. The third entropy isprovided to the set of physical nodes where the set of virtual machinesaccess the third entropy via a hypervisor.

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes: one or more computerprocessors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcomprising instructions, that when executed, control the one or morecomputer processors to be configured for: generating first entropy usinga true random number generator in a management computer configured tomanage a main computer, wherein the main computer controls a set ofphysical nodes including a set of services running in a set of virtualmachines; providing the first entropy to the main computer; combiningthe first entropy with second entropy generated by the main computer togenerate third entropy; and providing the third entropy to the set ofphysical nodes, wherein the set of virtual machines access the thirdentropy via a hypervisor.

In one embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcontaining instructions, that when executed, control a computer systemto be configured for: generating first entropy using a true randomnumber generator in a management computer configured to manage a maincomputer, wherein the main computer controls a set of physical nodesincluding a set of services running in a set of virtual machines;providing the first entropy to the main computer; combining the firstentropy with second entropy generated by the main computer to generatethird entropy; and providing the third entropy to the set of physicalnodes, wherein the set of virtual machines access the third entropy viaa hypervisor.

The following detailed description and accompanying drawings provide abetter understanding of the nature and advantages of particularembodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an example of a distributed computing system according toone embodiment.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example controller node according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 2B depicts a more detailed example of a management computer forproviding an API for access to hardware elements according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of initializing the upgrade of the managementcomputer according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts an example of the upgrade process of the main computeraccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 depicts another example of the upgrade process for the maincomputer according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 depicts an example of the upgrade process in a multi-controllernode system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 depicts an example of a logical system model of the distributedcomputing system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a more detailed example of an orchestration servicearchitecture in the distributed computing system according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a logical view of an example orchestration servicearchitecture illustrating the orchestration service and a sharedblackboard service according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 depicts a simplified flowchart of monitoring the blackboardservice according to one embodiment.

FIG. 11 depicts an example of a presence service according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 12A depicts a simplified flowchart of a method for performing theelection process according to one embodiment.

FIG. 12B describes the global system state of a three-controllerdistributed computing system with eighteen physical nodes apportionedacross the three controller nodes 107.

FIG. 12C shows a naming scheme for the other system service containers.

FIG. 12D shows three examples of the presence state informationregistered on behalf of a controller node, a physical node, and acontainer when a presence service is configured in census mode accordingto one embodiment

FIG. 12E shows the data objects for the orchestration service zonecontroller node as children in the path /orchestration/zone/election inthe blackboard service according to one embodiment

FIG. 12F shows state information for the /orchestration/zone data objectin the blackboard service.

FIG. 13 depicts an example of a controller node for recovering from afailure according to one embodiment.

FIG. 14 depicts an example of providing entropy in the distributedcomputing system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 15 shows some examples of an orchestration service instanceconfigured with service specific personalities according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 16 shows an example of the MySQL function definition according toone embodiment.

FIG. 17 illustrates the components that make up one implementation ofthe orchestration service instance according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein are techniques for an entropy generation system for adistributed computing system. In the following description, for purposesof explanation, numerous examples and specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of particular embodiments.Particular embodiments as defined by the claims may include some or allof the features in these examples alone or in combination with otherfeatures described below, and may further include modifications andequivalents of the features and concepts described herein.

System Overview

Features and advantages of numerous aspects and embodiments of thepresent disclosure are described with reference to particular exampleembodiments of a distributed computing system that may be used for cloudcomputing, referred to herein as a distributed computing system. Thedistributed computing system may be advantageously used in a cloudcomputing application, for example. In certain embodiments of thedistributed computing system, an orchestration service may beresponsible for creating and maintaining a cohesive and unified systemthat appears as a single system to a user, despite failures of bothhardware and software, and for coordinating the execution and managementof all system services and ensuring their availability. Features of anorchestration service may be advantageous in managing and running adistributed computing system, for example.

In one example embodiment, a distributed computing architecture isdecentralized, and may include a zone, a controller node, a physicalnode, and a service container. Each controller node, physical node, andservice container may run an instance of the orchestration service,which collectively implements the overall distributed computing systemservice. This loosely coupled collection of orchestration servers isorganized in a manner that decentralizes the overall management of azone, and may require little direct communication between servers, forexample.

In one example embodiment, a distributed computing system is a turnkeyInfrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) product that provides on-demandallocation of virtual machines (VMs), virtualized networking, andvirtualized data storage, the key functionalities for a cloud computingenvironment in a private data center. In another example embodiment, theIaaS product provides on-demand allocation of physical computingresources without virtualization, including networking configuration andphysical storage. In one example embodiment, a distributed computingsystem is a large distributed system, implemented as a hierarchicalcollection of physical nodes (e.g., servers) and controller nodes thatcommunicate over a common network fabric and presents the appearance ofa single large system with large quantities of compute power, storagecapacity, and bandwidth.

In one example distributed computing hardware architecture, the servernodes, called physical nodes, are organized typically by racks intoseparate communication domains, each of which is controlled by acontroller node, a specialized hardware, which is unique to adistributed computing system. All physical nodes and controller nodesmay be connected by cable directly to their rack's controller node. Inmulti controller configurations, the controller nodes communicate over acommon aggregation switch to weave all the controller nodes into a cloudfabric.

In the distributed computing software architecture, the distributedcomputing software is deployed as a set of system services in thehardware, running on the physical nodes and on the controller nodes.These services work together to implement the crucial functions expectedof a cloud infrastructure, as well as to ensure that the infrastructureitself provides uninterrupted service in spite of failures anywhere inthe system. The system services are structured into a logical hierarchythat separates responsibilities at different levels of granularity inthe system and maps into underlying hardware organization.

Example Hardware Architecture

FIG. 1 depicts an example of a distributed computing system 100according to one embodiment. Distributed computing system 100 may beorganized around a controller node 107, with arrangements in eithersingle controller configuration 100 or multi controller nodeconfiguration 101. The single controller configuration is a distributedcomputing system with a single controller and the multi controller nodeconfiguration is a distributed computing system with multiplecontrollers.

In each configuration, controller node 107 may be connected to one ormore physical nodes 102 by a connection, such as a combined data and outof band management cable, hereinafter referred to as the cloud cable,or, if a cloud cable is not used, other compatible primary networkcables 103 in conjunction with a separate out of band management networkcable 104. The compatible primary network cables 103 and out of bandmanagement network cables 104 can include various types of conventionalcommunication wires, such as CAT5e twisted pairs, CAT6 twisted pairs,and coaxial cable, for communication over Ethernet or other similarnetworking protocols. The network cables can also include fiber-opticbundles for communication over various optical network communicationprotocols. In one example embodiment, multi controller nodeconfigurations 101 of more than two controller nodes where over half ofthe controller nodes are available provide high availability of thedistributed computing orchestration services and related cloud computingservices. Each controller node in multi controller node configurationsis connected to one or more physical nodes 102 by means of cloud cableor other compatible network cable 103.

Controller nodes 107 may communicate with each other via a connection.For example, each controller node 107 in a multi controller nodeconfiguration 101 may be attached to a separate out of band managementswitch 105. In such multi controller node configurations 101, controllernodes 107 are connected to one or more aggregation switches 106.Aggregation switches 106 interconnect controller nodes 107 in multicontroller configurations 101, permitting communication between thecontroller nodes 107.

Controller Node Configuration

FIG. 2A illustrates an example controller node 107 according to oneembodiment. For example, a main network switch 125 in FIG. 2A on eachcontroller node 107 may have one or more connections to aggregate switch106. Aggregate switches 106 allow controller nodes 107 to connect with alarge number of other controller nodes without requiring a large numberof network connection ports on each controller node to be used forinterconnection between each of controller nodes 107, for example. Ifcontroller nodes 107 attach to each of the other controller nodes 107 ina multi controller system, multiple network interfaces would need to beused, which may limit the number of available interfaces forinterconnection with physical nodes. When used, aggregation switches 106interconnect with upstream networks 108, providing communication betweenthe distributed computing system and upstream networks.

Controller node 107 is an advantageous component of the distributedcomputing system to control orchestration functions and cloud services,including the provisioning and configuration of physical nodes 102. Forexample, when physical nodes 102 are attached to a controller node 107,controller node 107 exercises control over the physical node's basicpower state and, in some embodiments, the physical node's boot order.Physical nodes 102 are configured to either seek boot images over theirnetwork interfaces or are configured to do so by the controller node.The physical node 102 then obtains its boot image from the controllernode 107 which contains start up instructions that establishcommunication with the controller node such that the physical node isconfigured and included in the distributed computing resource pool. Fromthere, controller node 107 may issue workloads to physical node 102 andphysical node 102 will process the workloads, providing cloud services.In some embodiments, controller node 107 is a rack-mounted device ofchassis dimensions substantially similar to typical rack-mounted servercomputers, including those attached to controller nodes as physicalnodes 102. Rack-mounted embodiments of the controller node 107 include4U, 2U, and 1U physical dimensions where a U is a rack unit of standarddimension, typically 1.75″ high, 19″ wide, and variable depth.

Referring to FIG. 2A, one example controller node 107 may be comprisedof an main network switch 125; a main computer 130 (e.g., including itsown central processing unit, storage, and memory (not shown)); aninternal network switch 121; one or more microcontrollers (e.g., mastermicrocontroller 131 described in more detail below), one or moreinternal communication and management networks; fault tolerant powersupply 135 and distribution 134; management computer 126; environmentalsubsystem 132; one or more universal serial bus hubs; and physicaladministration interface 136 (e.g., an LCD touchscreen). Although mainnetwork switch 125 is shown as being included in controller node 107,main network switch 125 may be external to controller node 107. In thiscase, controller node 107 would communicate with main network switch 125through an interface.

In one example, main network switch 125 is the interface by which thecontroller node 107 communicates with, provisions, and/or managesattached physical nodes 102, communicates with one or more aggregationswitches 106, communicates with one or more out of band managementswitches 105 if a cloud cable is not used, communicates with one or moreother controller nodes 107 (e.g., through aggregate switches), as wellas the interface by which the attached physical nodes 102 communicatewith one another. The resultant network is one example of what may bereferred to as a cloud fabric. In one example, the interfaces on themain network switch 125 comprise one or more primary network interfaces118, one or more management network interfaces 119, one or more serialmanagement interfaces, and one or more universal serial bus interfaces120.

Primary network interfaces 118 on the main network switch 125 form thenetwork pathways between the controller node 107 and physical nodes 102carrying the majority of traffic between the devices, includingorchestration, cloud service, and client traffic. Exampleimplementations of the primary network interfaces 118 may include RJ-45,small form-factor pluggable, quad small form-factor pluggable, or othernetwork interface. Controller node 107 attaches to physical nodes 102 bymeans of one or more cloud cable or one or more compatible network cable103 through the main network switch 125. When more than one cloud cableor compatible network cable is utilized to attach a physical node 102 tocontroller node 107, such connections may be combined or bonded foreither redundancy or increased throughput where the effective basenetwork throughput between controller node 107 and physical node 102 ismultiplied by the number of such additional connections. This method ofchannel bonding permits high throughput configurations. In someembodiments, the primary network interfaces 118 on the controller node'smain network switch 125 are configured to utilize an inter-integratedcircuit communication protocol management (“I2C”) bus present in thecloud cable. This configuration permits primary network traffic,inter-integrated circuit communication protocol management traffic, andinter-integrated circuit communication protocol system traffic totransit through any primary network interface 118 on the main networkswitch 125 to the attached physical nodes 102. Inter-integrated circuitcommunication protocol management traffic comprises distributedcomputing-specific traffic to the physical node, including controlmessages, management sessions, and other configuration and managementdata. Inter-integrated circuit communication protocol system trafficcomprises messages normally issued in the course of initialization andoperation of a network switch when attached to network cables capable ofresponding to data inquires, including manufacturer data, cable length,and connection status. When a cloud cable is used and attached to acloud card in physical node 102, two effective network connections areestablished over a single physical link. In other embodiments, aseparate out of band management network is created by attaching the mainnetwork switch 125 to a physically separate out of band managementswitch 105. Out of band management networks are used to communicatebasic instructions such as turn on, turn off, change configuration,change boot order, and load operating system, for example, from acontroller node 107 to an internal processor in each physical node 102(e.g., a baseboard management controller chip operating according to theintelligent platform management interface protocol). In suchembodiments, physical nodes 102 attached to controller node 107 byprimary compatible network cable may also be connected to the separateout of band management switch, forming a secondary data network betweencontroller node 107 and attached physical nodes 102. The out of bandmanagement switch 105 attaches to out of band management ports on thephysical nodes 102, permitting controller node 107 to issueconfiguration and control messages to physical nodes 102 by means of anintelligent platform management interface. This out of band managementdata network is advantageous in communicating with, configuring, andprovisioning physical nodes 102 when such physical node's primarynetwork interface is not configured or not functional, such as whenthere is no operating system on physical node 102 or any operatingsystem on physical node 102 is misconfigured, damaged, or otherwise in adegraded state which impacts the operation of the primary networkinterface.

The management network interfaces 119 on the main network switch 125 arecoupled to management computer 126 through the controller node'sinternal network switch 121. In one example, management computer 126uses interfaces 119 to establish administrative access to main networkswitch 125 and configure main network switch 125 it for use in thedistributed computing system, including, virtual network configuration,routing configuration, network interface configuration, and otherprocesses and configurations advantageous to rendering cloud computingservices. Some main network switches 125 expose the management networkinterfaces 119 in-line with, or offset from but facing in the samedirection as, the primary network interfaces 118 making them physicalaccessible from outside the controller node chassis. In someembodiments, such physical in-line management network interfaces 119 aredisabled, and the corresponding logical interfaces on main networkswitch 125 are redirected to inward facing interfaces. In otherembodiments, such physical in-line management network interfaces 119 areadditional and subordinate to internal secondary management interfaces.

Management network interfaces 119 may take the form of one or morededicated network interfaces or an Ethernet-to-universal serial busadapter connected directly to an available universal serial businterface, or universal serial bus hub connected to a universal serialbus interface, on a motherboard of the main network switch 125, exposingan additional physical and logical interface to the operating system onmain network switch 125. The use of a universal serial bus hub permitsmultiple universal serial bus devices to be connected to main networkswitch 125 by means of one universal serial bus port on the main networkswitch's motherboard. When used, an Ethernet-to-universal serial busadapter exposes an additional physical and logical interface to theoperating system on main network switch 125.

Main network switch 125 is configured using standard device managerfunctions of the main network switch operating system to remap thelogical secondary management interface to the logical interface exposedby the physical Ethernet-to-universal serial bus adapter interface.Internal network switch 121, management network interfaces 119 on themain network switch 125, and connections between the two devices areinternal to the controller node, controlled by management computer 126,with no logical or physical user facing interfaces other than throughthe management computer when configured as a support gateway.

The serial management interfaces 127 on main network switch 125 areattached to serial interfaces on the controller node's managementcomputer 126. These interfaces provide an additional pathway formanagement computer 126, or a technician leveraging access throughmanagement computer 126, to interface with the main network switch 125in the event that the network management interfaces become unavailableor unreliable, such as in the case of misconfiguration. This pathwayguards against software errors by permitting another channel forcorrecting errors which disable communication over the man networkswitch's internal network management interfaces. Some main networkswitches expose serial management interfaces in-line with, or offsetfrom but facing in the same direction as, the primary networkinterfaces, making them physically accessible from outside thecontroller node chassis. In some embodiments, such physical in-lineserial management interfaces are disabled, and the corresponding logicalinterfaces on the externally facing switch are redirected to inwardfacing interfaces. In other embodiments, such physical in-line serialmanagement interfaces are additional and subordinate to internal serialmanagement interfaces 127. Internal serial management interfaces 127 maytake the form of one or more dedicated serial interfaces or aserial-to-universal serial bus adapter connected directly to anavailable universal serial bus interface or universal serial bus hubconnected to a universal serial bus interface on main network switch 125motherboard, exposing an additional physical and logical interface tothe operating system on the main network switch 125. When aserial-to-universal serial bus adapter is used, the main network switchis configured using standard device manager functions on the mainnetwork switch operating system to remap the logical serial managementinterface to the logical interface exposed by the physicalserial-to-universal serial bus adapter interface.

The universal serial bus interfaces 120 on main network switch's 125 maybe both inward facing such that they may be attached to other controllernodes 107 or interfaces by wire or other physical pathway, or they maybe externally facing interfaces in-line with, or offset from but facingin the same direction as, the primary network interfaces 118 making themaccessible from outside the controller's node physical chassis. In someembodiments, such physical externally facing and externally accessibleuniversal serial bus interfaces 120 are disabled, leaving only theinternally facing interfaces operational and available forinterconnection with other controller node interfaces. In otherembodiments, such physical in-line universal serial buses interfaces 120are additional to internal universal serial bus interfaces 128. Theuniversal serial bus interfaces on main network switch 125 mayadvantageously be used to provide for additional communication pathwaysbetween main network switch 125 and other controller node components,such as management computer 126, beyond those interfaces physicalpresent on the main network switch 125.

In one example embodiment, the controller node's main computer 130includes a central processing unit, memory, and storage 140, forexample, configured to operate the distributed computing softwarearchitecture, including the base operating system, orchestrationservice, and system service containers. Main computer 130 is the baseplatform from which distributed computing services are rendered.Typically, distributed computing services, including cloud computingservices such as the main workload scheduler, identity service, storageservice, disk image service, and user interface services; reside on andare independent servers. Many of these services are dependent on oneanother to perform their functions. This distributed computing systemrequires that communication between the services conducted throughnetwork interfaces. In order to approximate the expected barrier betweencloud services, main computer 130 isolates services into partitionswhich each possess full virtual network interfaces and are independentlyaddressable. The distributed computing orchestration service createsthese network enabled and addressable partitions, populates them withthe requisite software to enable the desired service, and configures thepartition, the partition's network interface, and the service softwarewithin the partition to provide the desired service function. By usingthis partitioning scheme, main computer 130 is able to render cloudcomputer services requiring network communication with other servicesfrom within a single physical server.

The controller node's main computer 130 is coupled to other componentsof controller node 107 by one or more primary network interfaces, one ormore secondary management network interfaces, one or more serialinterfaces, one or more storage interfaces, one or more inter-integratedcircuit communication protocol pathways, and by front panel headerconnections such as power switch, reset switch, and activity indicatorlamp. These interfaces provide multiple independent pathways for othercomponents in controller node 107 to connect with the main computer. Asan integrated appliance, the availability of redundant interfaces isadvantageous to guard against the failure or misconfiguration of any oneinterface, which would otherwise render the overall controller nodeunusable. These pathways provide both programmatic and technician accessto the main computer to assist in configuration, reconfiguration,troubleshooting, diagnostics, and recovery from fault conditionsincluding misconfiguration, primary operating system failure, or otherinterface failure. The main computer's primary network interfaces areattached to the controller node's main network switch 125 by one or morecompatible network cables and carry cloud service traffic to and fromthe physical nodes. When multiple network cables are used, the channelsmay be bonded for redundancy or to multiply base effective throughput bythe number of such additional connections. The main computer'smanagement network interfaces are attached to the controller node'sinternal network switch by means of wire or other physical pathway andcarry management traffic to and from the management computer. The maincomputer's serial interfaces are attached to main computer 130,permitting main computer 130 to obtain console access to main computer130 as another means of controlling the main computer. The maincomputer's storage interfaces attach to storage devices withinmanagement computer 126. The intelligent management platform bus headeron main computer 130 is attached to the master microcontroller by meansof inter-integrated circuit communication protocol pathway so that themaster microcontroller, or management computer through the mastermicrocontroller, may control the state and configuration of maincomputer 130. The master microcontroller also attaches to the maincomputer's front panel header and thereby has a second means ofcontrolling the main computer's state, as well as monitoring itsactivity.

The controller node's internal network switch 121 connects several ofthe controller node's internal systems and routes Ethernet basedmanagement traffic among them. Among the systems in this internalnetwork are the main computer 130, main network switch 125, primarymicrocontroller 131, and the management computer 126. Theseinterconnections are by means of wire, PCB trace, or other physicalpathway, for example.

Controller node 107 hosts a number of microcontrollers and nonvolatilememories. Printed circuit boards in controller node 107 that hostmicrocontrollers or other active logic circuitry, as opposed to simplecircuit pathway or structural boards, contain nonvolatile memories for avariety of purposes. In some embodiments, nonvolatile memory is in theform of Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. Activeprinted circuit boards contain at least one nonvolatile memory for thestorage of version, manufacture data such as date and location, andrelated metadata regarding the host printed circuit board. Each suchmetadata nonvolatile memory is electrically coupled with the primarymicrocontroller by means of inter-integrated circuit communicationprotocol pathways. Additional nonvolatile memories are present in someactive printed circuit boards in order to store configuration or statedata needed for the logic functions of other circuits on a given printedcircuit board. One such nonvolatile memory stores the configuration datafor the controller node's internal network switch. Another suchnonvolatile memory stores font cache data used in the visual renderingof the controller node's physical administration interface.

The controller node microcontrollers comprise a master microcontroller131, environmental microcontroller 132, and fascia microcontroller 133.The master microcontroller is responsible for general hardwareregulation within the controller node, controlling power state andmonitoring hardware health status. The master microcontroller 131 isattached by inter-integrated circuit communication protocol pathways toall metadata nonvolatile memories in the controller node, thermal probesin some printed circuit boards, the power distribution unit 134 by meansof PMBus protocol, other microcontrollers, the physical administrationinterface 136, the intelligent platform management bus header on themain computer 130, by network interface to the internal network switch121, and by universal serial bus to the management computer 126. Themaster microcontroller 131 is powered when electricity is supplied tocontroller node 107, even during a thermal or other fault related powerinterrupt condition, and provides overall orchestration and logic forthe operation of base hardware components throughout controller node107. In those embodiments where master microcontroller 131 has access tometadata nonvolatile memories, environmental microcontroller 132 and itsfan speed data, the power distribution unit 134 and its PMBus data, andlow level management control of main computer 130 by means ofintelligent platform management interface, master microcontroller 131 iscapable of performing health checks against major controller nodesubsystems. Health checks, which can take the form of thermalmonitoring; power consumption monitoring, basic test functions, andelectrical presence; are important in the operation of the controllernode due to the multitude of internal, typically independent systemcomponents. Centrally gathering such health data and presenting the samethrough the controller node's physical administration interface 135 aidsin system diagnostics and troubleshooting.

Master microcontroller 131 powers the controller node's physicaladministration interface 135. In some embodiments, this interface takesthe form of a touchscreen liquid crystal display (“LCD”). Touch inputfrom such a display is captured and relayed to master microcontroller131 as user input, permitting the user to select among various optionsand issue commands to the master controller. Such commands includetoggling the power state of controller node 107, configuring physicalnodes 102, performing configuration or other audits, and enteringsupport mode. Physical administration interface 135 is also used todisplay a range of information about controller node 107 and attachedphysical nodes 102, including the controller node's operational status,state, performance, configuration, and overall system capacity.

Master microcontroller 131 participates in environmental regulation bymonitoring some thermal sensors in controller node 107. In the eventmaster microcontroller 131 detects temperatures that exceed thecontroller node's maximum safe operating temperature, mastermicrocontroller 131 may issue a power interrupt request to the powerdistribution unit 134 and shut controller node 107 down. Mastermicrocontroller 131 also accepts power interrupt requests frommanagement computer 126, and can issue fan duty cycle override commandsto the environmental microcontroller.

Master microcontroller 131 bridges base hardware components in thecontroller with distributed computing orchestration software by means ofinteraction with management computer 126. An application programminginterface (API), such as a RESTful HTTP API endpoint, on managementcomputer 126 accessible by network connection provides the interface bywhich other software components in controller node 107 may issuerequests to base hardware. Such API calls are received by managementcomputer 126, processed, converted to into a corresponding universalserial bus human interface device class function, conveyed to mastermicrocontroller 131 by means of the universal serial bus interface,processed, and converted into a specified command addressed to ahardware component.

Environmental microcontroller 132 is responsible for regulatingenvironmental conditions within controller node 107. This task may bemade complicated by the presence of multiple independent componentswithin controller node 107, some of which may typically have independentthermal management systems and which may not function correctly withoutfirst verifying the presence of specific thermal management systems. Theenvironmental microcontroller accommodates these components bymaintaining overall thermal conditions and emulating the presence ofexpected thermal management systems for each component requiring suchsystems in the manner expected. For example, some components will verifythe number of expected cooling fans before operating. The environmentalmicrocontroller emulates the presence of the expected number of coolingfans, thus enabling operation of the affected component. Among theenvironmental microcontroller's functions are processing thermal dataand control messages, including monitoring various thermal probes,monitoring fan performance, adjusting fan duty cycle in response toprevailing environmental conditions, responding to thermal sensorinquires and duty cycle adjustment requests from controller nodesub-components, and issuing power interrupts as necessary to preventthermal related damage from occurring. A fan duty cycle is thepercentage of time the fan is active in a given timespan. Theenvironmental microcontroller 132 is attached to and responsible for theoperation of controller node chassis fans. The environmentalmicrocontroller 132 collects thermal sensor data from thermal probes onprinted circuit boards distributed throughout the controller andcalculates the appropriate fan duty cycle for overall controller nodecooling requirements based on this data. The cooling curve is definedaccording to the operating requirements of all components withincontroller node 107 such that the controller node's internal temperatureapproximates as nearly as possible the median optimal operatingtemperature of all controller node components while never exceeding themaximum thermal rating of any individual component. The environmentalmicrocontroller 132 also monitors chassis fan performance. If fanperformance degrades, or if fans fail, the environmental microcontroller132 can trigger a fault alarm or interrupt power to the chassis, asnecessary, to prevent thermal damage to controller node 107. In someembodiments, a dedicated interrupt circuit between the mastermicrocontroller 131 and the environmental microcontroller 132 serves toeffect power interruption. In such embodiments, if eithermicrocontroller determines that a system fault or environmentalcondition necessitates a power interruption, the master microcontroller131 will issue an interrupt request to the power distribution subsystem134.

Controller node components hosting independent environmental regulationsystems, such as fan speed sensors and logic for adjusting fan dutycycle in response to sensor data, are attached to the environmentalmicrocontroller 132. Environmental microcontroller 132 intercepts andresponds to both temperature data requests and duty cycle controlsignals from such components, including main network switch 125 and maincomputer 130. Reply messages to requesting components emulate expectedresponses, thereby maintaining the operational norm of the requestingcomponents. In some embodiments, duty cycle control signals and thermaldata from components with independent environmental regulation systemsare weighted and factored when the environmental microcontroller 132calculates the appropriate duty cycle for controller node chassis fans.In other embodiments, only the prevailing environmental condition asdetermined by a plurality of available thermal sensors is used incalculating the appropriate fan duty cycle suitable for overallcontroller node 107 operation.

Fascia microcontroller 133 is attached to management computer 126 bymeans of serial interface connection and powers the controller node'sfascia 136. Fascia microcontroller 133 controls the face panel of thecontroller chassis, which may be a touch screen interface, for example.In some embodiments, light emitting diodes on the controller node'sfront panel (fascia) can convey system state information, includinginitializing, on, fault condition, new node added, node removed, nodefault condition, and off Management computer 130 issues stateinformation is to the fascia microcontroller 133, which sequences andcontrols the light emitting diode array in the controller node's fasciato indicate a corresponding state. For example, a fault condition incontroller node 107 may be communicated to the fascia microcontrollerthrough the management computer HTTP API. A call to the APIcorresponding with error state and severity will be relayed to thefascia microcontroller 133 through the master microcontroller 131. Inresponse, fascia microcontroller 133 may adjust the color, light output,and pattern of light emitting diodes in the fascia to relate the failurestate. One such representation may take the form of flashing red acrossthe face of the failed controller node. Another example may include anAPI call placed to management computer 126 indicating that the maincomputer orchestration service is initializing. Such API call will berelayed to fascia microcontroller 133 through the master microcontroller131. Fascia microcontroller 133 may then adjust the fascia LED array topulsating blue. Incremental initialization states between uninitializedand fully initialized, such as building containers, initializing mainnetwork switch 125, and establishing communication with physical nodes,may be represented by different colors with similar flashing pattern.The speed of the flashing may be used to indicate progress during eachstep, such as increasing speed until solid to indicate success, or fixedchange to flashing pattern to indicate processing or failure. Each ofsuch combinations may be represented by single API calls with representmulti-step complex logic, or the grouping and sequential request ofseveral individual API calls, which represent primitive hardwarefunctions, such as on, off, flash, and adjust color. API definitionssupporting the above examples may be for entering pulsating mode, setpulsation frequency, and set LED color, for example.

Power for controller node 107 may be provided by redundant, faulttolerant power supplies 135 attached to a power distribution unit 134that communicates state data with the controller node using a protocol,such as the PMBus protocol. The power supplies and power distributionsystem in controller node 107 are able to accommodate the electricalrequirements of each of the controller node's varied components.Voltages in the controller node comply with a specification, such as theAdvanced Technology eXtended (ATX), power specification and areavailable in 12 v, 5 v, 3.3 v, and other voltages. The PMBus protocol isused to interrupt power to controller node 107 in the event of a thermalcondition or other environmental condition outside of specified normaloperating ranges to prevent physical damage to any of the controllernode's components. In some embodiments, power is distributed throughoutcontroller node 107 by means of PCB using blind mate interfaces. Tracesare of sufficient width and copper content to accommodate expectedvoltage and amperage over given distances. For example, higher currenttraces, longer traces, or both, are wider and contain more coppercontent to prevent the trace from heating to the trace copper's meltingpoint. In other embodiments, one or more insulated aluminum bus bars areused to carry high current power. Such bus bars are used in lieu oftraditional PCB traces to prevent over heating or other power qualityand safety issues. Each such bus bar conducts only one voltage. Invarious embodiments, standard power interfaces are exposed to connectwith controller node subsystems that require specific power interfaces.For example, main computer 130 may require power interfaces in the formof two standard ATX 8 pin power connectors and one standard ATX 24 pinpower connector.

Management Computer

Management computer 126 may be independent of the main computer 130 andis responsible for management of controller node 107. Managementcomputer 126 and main computer 130 may be separate computing chips orprocessors such that management computer 126 can manage main computer130. In other examples, management computer 126 and main computer may bethe same processor or chip. Management computer 126 is the startingpoint and stable basis from which other controller node operations areprovisioned, configured, and maintained. Management computer 126 mayinclude a central processing unit with hardware public key cryptographicfeatures, true random number generator, memory, storage, one or morenetwork interfaces, one or more serial interfaces, and one or moreuniversal serial bus interfaces. These interfaces provide multipleindependent pathways between the management computer, the main computer,and the main switch. The availability of multiple communication pathwaysbetween management computer 126 and other controller node componentsensures that the failure of any one interface does not obstruct allcommunication pathways with other controller node components.

At least one network interface on management computer 126 is attached tothe controller node's internal network switch 121, thereby permittingcommunication with main network switch 125, main computer 130,microcontrollers, and other systems present on the internal network. Atleast one other network interface on management computer 126 is attachedto a network interface accessible from outside the controller nodechassis 138, permitting physical access from outside of the controllernode's chassis. This interface is advantageous as it permits atechnician to directly connect with management computer 126 and utilizeits multiple, redundant pathways to the controller node's other internalsystems, such as main computer 130 and main network switch 125. Themanagement interfaces on main computer 130 and main network switch 125may be otherwise inaccessible from outside of the controller node'schassis, and any maintenance or diagnostic tasks on these componentswould require opening the chassis and disassembling controller node 107.The externally accessible network interface coupled with the embeddedmanagement controller therefore provides an administrative andmaintenance pathway to all controller node components without requiringdisassembly of controller node 107. In some embodiments, such externallyaccessible network interface 138 is disabled when controller node 107 isoperating normally, and may be selectively enabled through thecontroller node's physical administration interface 135, remotely, inresponse to fault conditions, or by other restricted means to provideauthorized diagnostic and support functions.

At least one serial interface on management computer 126 is attached toa serial interface of the main network switch 125. This interconnectionprovides for management access to the main network switch 125 inaddition to and independent of other management network interconnectionswith the main network switch 125. At least one other serial interface onmanagement computer 126 is attached to a serial interface of the maincomputer 130. This interconnection provides for management access to themain computer 130 in addition to and independent of other managementnetwork interconnections with main computer 130. The managementcomputer's universal serial bus may be used individually, or inconjunction with a universal serial bus hub, to expose additionalrequired interfaces by means of adapters such as anEthernet-to-universal serial bus adapter or serial-to-universal serialbus adapter. Management computer 126 interfaces with the mastermicrocontroller 131 by means of universal serial bus interface.

Management computer 126 performs several functions within controllernode 107, including initial provisioning of main computer 130 fromsigned disk images, upgrades of main computer 130 from signed upgradedisk images, an interface between the distributed computingorchestration system and lower level microcontrollers within controllernode 107, initial provisioning and configuration of the main networkswitch 125, upgrades of the main network switch's 125 operating system,out of band management access to the main network switch 125, out ofband management access to main computer 130, and an externallyaccessible diagnostic and support interface 138.

The management computer controls the basic states of main computer 130,such as on, off, and reset. It also controls the boot order of maincomputer 130, either through direct access to the main computer's bios,or by selectively disabling and enabling the main computer's primaryboot disk, thereby controlling which boot device is available to maincomputer 130. If the main computer's primary boot device is notavailable to it during the boot process, it will attempt to boot fromthe next device in its boot order. Exercising this control, managementcomputer 126 can force main computer 130 to search for a boot imagethrough the main computer's network interfaces, to which managementcomputer 126 is attached. Management computer 126 is then able toprovide a boot image to main computer 130 by means of network interface.This process is used in main computer 130 initial provisioning as wellas in upgrades of the main computer's software.

Management computer 126 contains a cryptographically signed factory diskimage of the initial operating state of main computer 130. In someembodiments, main computer's 130 disk images are also encrypted. Thesecryptographic measures ensure the integrity of the main computer's diskimage. Any modifications to the disk image, such as by userintervention, may change the image's signature. By verifying that theimage is signed by distributed computing, management computer 126prevents the execution of unauthorized software on controller node 107.In embodiments where the disk image is encrypted, the form and structureof the disk image is concealed so as to prevent potential attackers frominspect the controller node's system software.

Upon first boot, main computer 130 is configured to obtain its operatingsystem image from its network interfaces using a protocol, such as thepreboot execution environment (PXE) protocol. Management computer 126verifies the cryptographic signature of main computer's initial diskimage against cryptographic keys ephemerally or irreversibly written tomanagement computer 126. Management computer 126 may store cryptographickeys as normal data on its storage disk, or it may write thecryptographic keys using a one-time write process where fuses or othercircuits are permanently modified to prevent modification of thecryptographic keys. If verified, the disk image is made available tomain computer 130 from management computer 126 by means of a protocol,such as trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP), for example, or other PXEcompatible data distribution protocol, over the controller node'sinternal network. In one example embodiment, an intermediate networkbootloader capable of HTTP and other communication protocols indelivered to main computer 130 from management computer 126 by means ofTFTP. A server node may obtain the intermediate bootloader from maincomputer 130. The intermediate bootloader is a small application that isexecuted by a device asking for a network boot (e.g., main computer,server node). Once loaded, the intermediate bootloader causes maincomputer 130 to download the main boot image using HTTP or othercommunication protocols which improve reliability and efficiency of thedownload function. Main computer 130 downloads the disk image, writes itto a boot partition on persistent storage, and proceeds to boot fromthis disk image. Main computer 130 obtains its disk image from amanagement computer 126. A server node may obtain its disk image frommain computer 130 in controller node 107, for example. The intermediateboot loader construct with reliable and scalable distribution protocolis advantageous when distributing boot images to multiple physical nodes102 concurrently, such as when new physical nodes 102 are added andinitialized.

Management computer 126 also provides an upgrade disk image to the maincomputer 130. This process will be described in more detail below.During an upgrade, main computer 130 downloads from management computer126 the latest disk image (the upgrade) and saves it to storage 140 onmanagement computer 126, marking the upgrade as the current version ofthe disk image and marking the previous disk image (the versionoperating before the upgrade) as the previous version. To aid in systemrestoration, management computer 126 retains original main computer 130factory disk image as a baseline. Management computer 126 verifies thecryptographic signature of the main computer's upgrade disk imageagainst cryptographic keys irreversibly written to management computer126. In embodiments where the upgrade disk image is also encrypted,management computer 126 decrypts the disk image before transmitting itto main computer 130. In a multi-controller configuration, a subordinatecontroller is upgraded first. If successfully upgraded and joined backinto the distributed computing rack, the lead controller node in therack assigns the leader role to the upgraded controller node, which theniterates over the remaining controllers, upgrading each in turnaccording to the order in which the other controller nodes were added tothe rack.

Each individual controller node 107, and the only controller node 107 insingle controller node configuration, is upgraded by writing importantconfiguration and state data to persistent storage 140 in partitionsother than the boot partitions. When main computer 130 and the overalldistributed computing system have written all essential data and areprepared for the temporary absence of controller node 107, controllernode 107 restarts to obtain the upgrade disk image from managementcomputer 126 over the controller node's internal network using the PXEprotocol. During the main computer's absence, physical nodes 102 and anysystem services or virtual machines on the physical nodes 102 shouldremain operational and accessible as the controller node's main networkswitch 125 and physical node network components remain functional.Following the successful upgrade of the controller node's main computer130, controller node 107 may issue software upgrade commands to attachedphysical nodes 102, potentially resulting in service disruptions. Suchphysical node software upgrades are performed on one physical nodefirst, and if found successful, the upgrade commands iterate to theremainder of the physical nodes attached to the controller node.

Upgrades to the management computer 126 are achieved by partitions onthe management computer's primary storage device (not shown). Newmanagement computer software is written to an inactive partition. Whenwritten, the management computer 126 restarts and boots from thepartition containing the new software. In the event of a fault relatedto booting from the new software, management computer 126 restarts andboots from the previous software partition.

Using Management Computer as API to Bridge Software Functions withHardware Functions

Management computer 126 serves as a bridge between the main computer 130and lower level controller node functions, including the physicaladministration interface, fascia LED arrays, and I2C communicationsthrough the master microcontroller 131. In some embodiments, a highlevel API 142, such as a RESTful HTTP API, is made available to thecontroller node's main computer 130. The API is an endpoint for remoteprocedure calls. The calls to this API 142 are translated to specifichardware functions, including on, off, read temperature, read speed, setspeed, read luminance, set luminance, read color, set color, which areissued to the appropriate microcontroller by established communicationpathways and protocols, including, for example, a universal serial bususing the protocol's human interface device class. A universal serialbus interface between management computer 126 and master microcontroller131 may be used for reliability. The human interface device classtypically used with computer input peripherals is used for itsextensibility and suitability for translating API calls intoinstructions that may be processed by master microcontroller 131.

Management computer 126 is ideal for API 142 because management computer126 has communication pathways to multiple hardware elements 140 inaddition to the other components of controller node 107. Managementcomputer 126 thus can be a broker to translate communications fromdifferent hardware elements 140 that may communicate in different lowlevel hardware primitives to higher level software calls. This makeshardware elements 140 appear as software to software elements 138 assoftware elements 138 can use software commands, such as remoteprocedure calls, directed to hardware elements 140.

The HTTP API on management computer 126 is advantageous in the overalloperation of controller node 107. For example, the various components incontroller node 107 are each independently powered such that they maynot directly affect the power state of other components. Therefore, whenmain computer 130 receives a user signal to power off controller node107, software on main computer 130, including the orchestration service,may issue an API call to management computer 126 to initiate the poweroff process across all controller node components. Alternatively, apower off event triggered from the physical administration interface maybe communicated to the rest of the system by relaying the appropriateinstruction from the physical administration interface throughmanagement computer 126 to the relevant API endpoints within the system.System service state data may also be made available to the physicaladministration interface and front fascia through API call. Alert andfault API calls to management computer 126 may be related to the mastermicrocontroller 131 to the physical administration interface and fasciasuch that specific details may be displayed on the physicaladministration interface and the fascia may adjust the color or patternof its LED array to visually indicate the existence of an alert orfault.

FIG. 2B depicts a more detailed example of management computer 126 forproviding an API for access to hardware elements according to oneembodiment. Main computer 130 includes software elements 138. As will bediscussed in more detail below, the software elements may includeorchestration service instances running in containers in main computer130 and also system services being managed by the orchestration serviceinstances that are also running in the containers. The orchestrationservice instances and system services may communicate using high levelsoftware commands. However, software elements 138 may also need tocommunicate with hardware elements 140. But, as detailed above, hardwareelements 140 may communicate using low level hardware commands,communication pathways, and protocols. Software commands include any ofa number of remote procedure calls for communication between differentsystems while hardware commands are any of a number of basic electricalsignals and related protocols to effect communication and commandsbetween one hardware component and another, such as by means of serialconnection or inter-integrated circuit communication. The remoteprocedure calls may be an inter-process communication that allows acomputer program to cause a subroutine or procedure to execute inanother address space (e.g., management computer 126) without theprogrammer explicitly coding the details for this remote interaction.

In one embodiment, the orchestration service instances or systemservices may need to communicate with hardware elements 140, such asenvironmental microcontroller 132, power distribution 134, power supply135, LCD touch screen 136, and/or fascia microcontroller 133. Forexample, hardware elements 140 may contribute to the health, state, andconfiguration of both hardware elements 140 and software elements 138.The health means, for example, the availability, quality, and drawcharacteristics of electrical power, component and ambient temperature,and the availability and duty cycle of system fans. The state refers,for example, to the power state of controller node 107, either being onor off, and presentation of some useful subset of controller node 107'soperational information. For example, the fascia may output a pattern ofLED lights based on the operational state. The configuration refers toaccepting configuration data for initial set up of the distributedcomputing system.

To communicate with hardware elements 140, software commands fromsoftware elements 138 may need to be translated into hardware commandsthat hardware elements 140 understand. To provide separation between thesoftware commands and hardware commands, management computer 126 may beleveraged to provide the translation. This allows software elements 138to be developed to solely communicate using software commands. In thiscase, a developer does not need to know how to interact with hardwareelements 140 via hardware commands. Rather, software elements 138 maymake software calls to an API 142 in management computer 126. In oneembodiment, management computer 126 provides a RESTful API endpoint 142that can be accessed by software elements 138. For example, theorchestration service instances may query and write to API 142 tocommunicate with hardware elements 140.

Having the API in management computer 126 provides many advantages.Management computer 126 operates a full operating system capable ofhosting an HTTP API endpoint using software of the same type thatoperates elsewhere in controller node 107. This allows managementcomputer 126 to communicate with other elements in controller node 107such as main computer 130. Also, management computer 126 holds criticalcommunications pathways in a variety of interfaces and through a numberof protocols to hardware components in controller node 107. Thesepathways may be dedicated pathways. This allows management computer 126to interface with the software on main computer 130 using the same typeof remote procedure calls used by main computer 130 for inter processcommunication, effectively abstracting the business of hardware controlinto primitives easily manipulated by the software of main computer 130.

When API 142 receives the software call from software elements 138, atranslator 144 translates the software calls into lower level hardwarecommands. Translator 144 may include logic that translates softwarecommands into hardware commands that hardware elements 140 canunderstand. For example, management computer 126 may have an API for a/poweroff uniform resource identifier (URI) that, when a softwareelement 138 on main computer 130, typically the orchestration service,makes a call to the /poweroff URI of the API, management computer 126receives the command, interprets it, and issues a corresponding hardwarecommand to perform the function over any of a number of communicationpathways and protocols to the hardware. In this example, the call to/poweroff URI may be an HTTP call and may include the identifier for aspecific hardware component. Management computer 126 parses thisinformation, determines if the identifier corresponds to a hardwareelement 140 it has communication with, determines the correspondingcommand and pathway for the specific hardware element 140 in questionfrom a predefined and configured array of choices, and issues theidentified command. The translation is thus moved out of main computer130 and also software elements 138 do not need to know how to performthe translation. Software elements 138 do not need to communicate withan API on main computer 130 to hardware elements 140 via hardwarecommands. Rather, the API on management computer 130 is accessed viasoftware commands.

Once the translation is performed, translator 144 sends the hardwarecommands to hardware elements 140. In one embodiment, managementcomputer 126 sends the hardware commands via internal network switch 121through a universal serial bus interface. Then, the hardware commandsare forwarded from internal switch 121 via the USB to mastermicrocontroller 131. Master microcontroller 131 may then communicate thehardware command to hardware elements 140.

The communication may also be bi-directional. In this case, hardwareelements 140 may communicate hardware commands to management computer126. The hardware commands may include various information from hardwareelements that may be used by software elements 138, such as powerinformation. The hardware commands are communicated to managementcomputer 126 via master microcontroller 131, or an internal networkswitch 121, or other available communication pathway and protocol, suchas via the USB.

Translator 144 receives the hardware commands and may translate thehardware commands into software commands. Then, translator 144 sends thesoftware commands through API 142 to main computer 130. Softwareelements 138 may then use the software commands to perform actions. Inthis case, software elements 138 do not need to translate hardwarecommands into software commands, which simplify the operation of maincomputer 130 and software elements 138.

In one example, activation of remote user support may be provided. Auser may navigate to a menu on a touch screen interface or otherhardware human interface device of controller node 107 to enable remotesupport. When selected, the hardware human interface device (e.g.,touchscreen 136) communicates with management computer 126 to registerthe event. The communication may be using hardware commands. Managementcomputer 126 may then determine software elements 138 that need to benotified of the hardware command. Also, translator 144 may translate thehardware command into a software command (or commands). Managementcomputer 126 then issues the software command to relevant softwareelements 138. Each software element 138 may then configure itself toenable correct communication pathways to accept authorized connectionsto a system troubleshooting and diagnostics. In this case, hardwarecomponent input events may be translated into higher level APIinteraction that software elements 138 can use at its expected level ofabstraction and not have to drop to lower level communication protocolsto interact with hardware elements 140.

Accordingly, leveraging management computer 126 as an API endpoint,software elements 138 can communicate with hardware elements 140 using aconstant level of abstraction that exists between other softwareelements of the distributed computing system. In other words, managementcomputer 126 exposes hardware functions as software functions and may becalled in the same way that software elements 138 interact with othercomponents. This provides rapid development of software elements usinghardware parameters and negates the need for other forms of hardwareinteraction such as fixed routines independently developed or written toEEPROM or other memory that would diverge from prevalent architecturepresent in the distributed computing system.

Management computer 126 may serve as the primary software support anddiagnostics gateway to all other components in controller node 107.Multiple out of band interconnections with other controller nodecomponents, primarily by means of Ethernet network, serial, or universalserial bus, permit management computer 126 to fully access andadminister main network switch 125, main computer 130, andmicrocontrollers.

In some embodiments, certain thermal sensor data is available only bymeans of internet protocol network, such as by the Simple NetworkMonitoring Protocol (SNMP). In such embodiments, management computer 126interfaces with components offering thermal sensor data over SNMP tocollect, process, and monitor thermal sensor data from these components.Examples of devices rendering thermal sensor data over SNMP includedevices that host independent environmental regulation systems, such asmain network switch 125 and main computer 130. Thermal sensor datagathered over internet protocol network are conveyed to mastermicrocontroller 131 and to environmental microcontroller 132 for use incalculating fan duty cycle and determining whether power interrupt isnecessary to prevent thermal damage from occurring to controller node107.

The multiple independent components that comprise controller node 107each require appropriate power supplies and thermal conditions. Toaccommodate these environment requirements; the controller node's activePCBs host at least one thermal sensor. The data from these thermalsensors is made available throughout the controller node, including tomanagement computer 126, main computer 130, and main network switch 125.Microcontrollers supply thermal data to the controller node's componentsand respond to requests to increase or decrease fan speed from thevarious controller node components by making the appropriate adjustmentsto the controller node's fans. Controller node 107 includes at leastthree fans which are operable in both directions. Fan direction isrecorded in memory and can be adjusted to match the desired airflowcharacteristics of the facility in which controller node 107 isdeployed. A failure of any two or more fans triggers a powerinterruption to the chassis to prevent an unsafe thermal condition fromoccurring. Power consumption and power supply fan speed data is madeavailable to controller node components by means of the PMBus protocol.If controller node components, such as the main network switch 125 andmain computer 130, ordinarily have dedicated, fan cooled power supplies,signals from these components which query, increase, or decrease fanspeed are intercepted by the environmental microcontroller. Suchrequests are accommodated by increasing or decreasing controller nodefan speed, and appropriate response signals are provided to therequesting components in the signal format such components expect. Powersupply fan speed response signals emulate those that would ordinarily beissued by a dedicated, fan cooled power supply, and include adjustmentsto fan speed data the requesting component would expect in response tocommands to increase or decrease fan speed. This emulation ensuresproper functionality of the independent controller component whilemaintaining a thermal and power environment common to and suitable forall controller node components. General fan data for controller nodecomponents that ordinarily have and expect independent fans is alsoemulated and provided to the requesting components, including the numberand characteristics of the expected fans. Controller node componentrequests to increase or decrease fan speed are serviced by making theappropriate adjustments to controller node fan speed and responding tothe requesting components in the signaling format the requestingcomponent expects with emulated data, including the expected increase ordecrease in fan speed, as appropriate.

Controller Node and Physical Node Interaction

Controller node 107 may have a physical administration interface in theform of an externally accessible, user facing touchscreen LCD display.The physical administration interface is powered independently of themain controller node components and permits the controller node'sadministrator to power on the remainder of the controller node'scomponents. The physical administration interface displays real timedata about attached physical nodes, including number, state, andcapacity. In addition, the physical administration interface can beconfigured to display support information and controls, including logdata, performance data, fault data, software version numbers, hardwareversion numbers, and enabling or disabling the external support networkinterface.

In some embodiments, each physical node 102 in the distributed computingsystem is attached to a controller node 107 by means of cloud cableterminated into a cloud card on the physical node. A cloud card is anetwork interface device containing at least one management processorand high performance storage. In one embodiment, the cloud cardinterfaces with the host physical node as an expansion card utilizing aPCI-E interconnection. Additional interfaces on the cloud card includean intelligent platform management bus interface, side-band Ethernetinterface, general purpose input output pins, and serial bus interface.Where available, the intelligent platform management bus interfaceattaches to the corresponding intelligent platform management bus headeron the physical node's motherboard, providing access to the physicalnode's baseboard management controller, which implements intelligentplatform management (on, off, etc. . . . , as described above). A directconnection between the cloud card and the physical node's baseboardmanagement controller by means of intelligent platform management businterface permits the cloud card to control the physical node usingstandard intelligent platform management interface commands, includingpower on, power off, reset, read power status, read system event logs,and read sensor data. Alternatively, where the baseboard managementcontroller cannot be interfaced directly by means of intelligentplatform management bus interface, the cloud card may achieve some ofthe same command functions over physical node 102 by means of attachingthe cloud card's general purpose input output pins to the physical nodemotherboard front panel header containing power switch, reset switch,power status indicator, and disk activity indicator pins. When attachedto a physical node's front panel header, the cloud card is able toimplement a subset of the intelligent platform management interfacecommands, including power on, power off, reset, and read power status.The cloud card's management processor is responsible for interfacingwith an I2C protocol bus in the attached cloud cable, interpretingsignals delivered thereby, and issuing appropriate commands to thephysical node by means of intelligent platform management interfacecommands, front panel header switch emulation, or other suitable meansof effecting control of the physical node's power state andconfiguration.

Other functions of the cloud card's management processor includeconfiguration of baseboard management controller, configuration of thecloud card network interface, firmware upgrades for the cloud cardnetwork interface, firmware upgrades of the cloud card managementprocessor, serial interface relay, and keyboard-video-mouse relay. Insome embodiments, the physical node baseboard management controllers areconfigurable, including username and password. The cloud card managementprocessor interfaces with the baseboard management controller throughthe intelligent platform management bus header and configures theseproperties to the distributed computing system's desired operationalspecification. For example, in the case of username and password, theseproperties are set to values controlled by the distributed computingsystem to ensure successful authentication and control of the baseboardmanagement controller.

In some embodiments, the distributed computing system correlatesphysical node network interface MAC addresses with the physical locationof the physical node in relation to controller node 107 and otherphysical nodes 102 in the same server rack. To maintain thisconsistency, a specific cloud cable is associated with a definedlocation in the server rack. When a cloud cable so associated isattached to a cloud card in a physical node, an expected MAC address iscommunicated with the cloud card from an associated controller. Thecloud card then modifies the MAC address of its network interface deviceto match the MAC address received from the controller and expected bythe distributed computing system for the particular rack location thephysical node has been installed in. This level of correlation permitsmanagement and administration decisions to be made in accordance withdefined rack location. For instance, a well-defined IP address schememay be administered according to physical rack location, such that thephysical node in a designated rack location will always receive acertain IP address in a given allocation of IP addresses.

In some embodiments, the cloud card provides additional channels forunattended management and control of the physical node through serialinterface relay and keyboard-video-mouse relay functions. The serialinterface relay attaches to the physical node's serial interface bymeans of universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter which permits thephysical node's serial console to be interacted with over the cloudcable I2C bus. Due to the higher bandwidth requirements ofkeyboard-video-mouse, this functionality is implemented using thenetwork controller sideband interface standard, which provides higherthroughput up to controller node 107. In embodiments offering thekeyboard-video-mouse channel, the cloud card management processor maycontain a graphic subsystem and universal serial bus human interfacedevice profile to relay the video output of physical node 102 and toissue keyboard and mouse commands, as needed.

In embodiments which do not utilize cloud cables and cloud cards, an outof band management network may be created between controller node 107and physical nodes 102 independent of the primary network connectionsbetween controller node 107 and physical nodes 102. This independent outof band management network is used to issue intelligent platformmanagement interface commands to physical nodes.

The basic controls controller node 107 has over the physical nodes 102,including on, off, restart, and change boot order, can be grouped andexecuted to achieve varying management and administration objectives.The power control commands are used by the distributed computing systemto stagger the initial power on of physical nodes 102 in order todistribute the network and power impact of such initial power on eventsover a period of time, resulting in lower overall datacenter network andpower consumption. The delay in starting subsequent physical nodes 102can be configured to equate with either the amount of time a physicalnode 102 typically takes to complete power-on self tests, the amount oftime required to become fully provisioned and operational, or anotherperiod which approximates the duration of initial high currentconsumption following a power on event. Staggered start is useful bothin initial power on of a new system as well as recovering fromelectrical faults in an orderly fashion. Controlled power on can assistfacility operators in managing overall power consumption by mitigatingthe high initial power draw of physical nodes when booting as opposed topower draw when operational. As a result, overall electrical currentneed not in all cases equate with the maximum potential current draw ofa distributed computing system. In addition, the power control commandscan be used by the distributed computing system to balance resourceconsumption and resource capacity. If the distributed computingorchestration service determines that overall system use as manifestedin physical node resource consumption falls below system capacity, thedistributed computing system can migrate and concentrate workloads ontoa subset of physical nodes. Once physical nodes are freed of workloads,the appropriate management commands, typically in the form ofintelligent platform management interface commands, may be issued topower down the unused physical nodes until needed. The distributedcomputing system may then power on additional physical nodes as neededand distribute workloads to those physical nodes to meet fluctuatingworkload demands.

Management controls may also be used for identification of physicalnodes 102. This is useful in configurations with multiple physical nodes102 when one such physical node fails or otherwise requires physicalmaintenance. By issuing management commands to a physical node 102, thedistributed computing system is able to control the power and activitylights on physical node 102, illuminating them in patterns whichdistinguish the desired physical node 102 from other physical nodes 102,and thereby visually denoting physical node 102 requiring physicalmaintenance to facility personnel.

The ability to control the power state and configuration of physicalnodes 102 permits the distributed computing system to provision newlyattached physical nodes 102 from a powered but off state through toinstallation into the distributed computing system as an operationalresource. This is achieved by either manually ensuring that physicalnodes 102 are configured to seek a boot image through their networkinterface card (e.g., using the PXE protocol) or using managementinterfaces to configure the physical node's boot order to select bootfrom the network interface card. Upon initial network boot, physicalnode 102 will obtain its operating system image from the controller nodethat the physical node is attached to (e.g., through the PXE protocol).In particular example embodiments, controller node 107 provides attachedphysical nodes 102 with an intermediate boot loader (e.g., by means ofTFTP). This intermediate boot loader may permit the physical node toobtain its primary operating system image by more reliable transportprotocols, such HTTP. Once booted, this operating system image isconfigured to initiate communication with controller node 107 through awell-defined IP address scheme where controller node 107 uses aspecified network address. Further configuration of physical node 102may be delivered from the controller node once successful communicationis established with the controller node. Configuration may includeallocation of physical nodes 102 storage capacity for different tiers ofstorage, configuration of the orchestration service instance on thephysical node, configuration of the cloud compute service scheduler onthe physical node, and any software updates which may be required. Uponfinal configuration, software updates, and registration with thecontroller node, the physical node is fully provisioned and added to theresource pool.

Upgrade of Controller Node

The distributed computing system may be deployed in variousconfigurations, some of which may not be remotely accessible, and thesoftware installed on the distributed computing system should beoperated and maintained with reliability and predictability. Thedistributed computing system is able to receive and authenticate newsoftware, distribute the software among other nodes in the clusterconfiguration, and orchestrate the upgrade without significantoperational impact to nodes in the distributed computing environment.The software upgrade may be performed using management computer 126,main computer 130, and physical nodes 102.

In one embodiment, a software upgrade package may be received bycontroller node 107. The software upgrade may be an operating systemand/or applications that are running on controller node 107 for one ormore components. For example, a system administrator may receive asigned software upgrade package in the form of an upgrade disk image andupload it to the distributed computing system through a user interface.In one embodiment, an internal network to a controller node 107 is usedto upload the software upgrade package. The software upgrade package maybe an upgrade disk image that contains a complete image of the software.That is, the previously-installed software being used by the distributedcomputing system may be replaced by software on the software upgradepackage. This provides a consistent image to the distributed computingsystem.

Management computer 126 may coordinate the upgrade. In this way, theupgrade may be performed automatically and also in a controlled fashionwithout user input after receiving the software upgrade package. In theupgrade flow, management computer 126 may first upgrade itself. Then,management computer 126 may coordinate the upgrade of controller node107 via main computer 130. This is in a single controller node 107system. However, a multiple controller node 107 system upgrade may beperformed and will be described in more detail below.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of initializing the upgrade of managementcomputer 126 according to one embodiment. When controller node 107receives the software upgrade package, in one embodiment, controllernode 107 validates the integrity and authenticity of the softwareupgrade package and decrypts the contents of the software upgradepackage. If successful, controller node 107 sends the decrypted softwareupgrade package to management computer 126 with an instruction toupgrade itself. In one embodiment, main computer 130 may receive thesoftware upgrade package, decrypt it, and then send it to managementcomputer 126. Management computer 126 is used to coordinate the upgradeof main computer 130 such that the upgrade can be performedautomatically without user input. Management computer 126 is essentialto the process as the upgrade system utilizes whole images. Discretecomponents are not modified individually; rather, the entire system isreplaced with a new image of the complete system reflecting changes toany of the various subcomponents of the overall system. State ispersisted outside of main computer 130 and restored in an ordered andcontrolled fashion as a post-upgrade step. During this process, maincomputer 130's operational state is completely destroyed, albeit in anorderly and controlled fashion. When main computer 130 reboots, itdiscards a previous operating system or other system software, and mustload the total upgrade image from management computer 126. Withoutmanagement computer 126, there is no source for main computer 130 toobtain its operating software.

The above process provides many advantages. As the upgrade is a fullimage upgrade, main computer 130 (e.g., controller node 107) cannot wipeitself and load software upgrade without having a failure recoveryscenario. By having management computer 126 provide the upgrade imageand issue management commands to main computer 130 to effect theupgrade, management computer 126 ensure success of the upgrade or afailure recovery. Without using management computer 126, a failure mayresult in a broken state. However, using management computer 126,management computer 126 can attempt to roll back to the previoussoftware version to recover from any failures. In the distributedcomputing system, this level of resiliency is very important. The threatof failure is minimized on management computer 126 as it is a fairlystatic configuration. However, main computer 130 may contain valuabledate, such as customer data, and directly services customer requests,which can vary in load and can potentially produce unexpected outcomesthat may obstruct the upgrade process. Management computer 126 can alsoaccess state and configuration data and pass that data to main computer130 at key points in main computer's 130 startup and build out. Examplesinclude network information, which varies on controller node 107, butremains static on management computer 126. Thus, management computer 126provides a reliable, consistent, always-on system to navigate and debugthe pre-install environment on main computer 130. The pattern of imagewiping provides certainty as to outcome and is may be much faster thantrying to upgrade the individual software components in-place.

In the upgrade process, in a step #1 (reference 302), managementcomputer 126 may also verify the software upgrade package. For example,management computer 126 may verify the cryptographic signature of theupgrade disk image against cryptographic keys irreversibly written tomanagement computer 126.

Management computer 126 may maintain the currently-installed softwaredisk image as a baseline. In this case, the upgrade software packagewill not upgrade this baseline image. Rather, this image may beavailable for restoration at a later time. This allows managementcomputer 126 to roll back to a known state if the update fails. To keepthe currently-running disk image as a baseline, at step #2 (reference303), management computer 126 may write elements of the software upgradepackage relevant to upgrading management computer 126 to a partition instorage 304 for management computer 126. For example, storage 304 mayinclude a first partition (A partition) 306-1 and a second partition (Bpartition) 306-2. These may be separate partitions on a persistentstorage device that is associated with management computer 126. Thesepartitions may be in an alpha-beta (A/B) scheme where one partitionincludes the active software and the other partition is inactive, but issuitable for storing the relevant portions of the software upgradepackage. For example, as shown, management computer 126 has stored therelevant upgrade software components from the software upgrade packagein a file system in B partition 306-2. The current software is stored ina file system in A partition 306-1, which is the active partition rightnow.

In a step #3 (reference 307), upon a successful writing of the updatesoftware to B partition 306-2, management computer 126 designates theinactive file system as the active file system (i.e., designating the Bpartition as active). This also causes A partition 306-1 to becomeinactive. Once this occurs, management computer 126 can start theupgrade transition. In a step #4 (reference 308), management computer126 reboots itself. The rebooting ensures that management computer 126starts from an initial state using the software upgrade. Upon rebooting,management computer 126 finds the active partition, which is B partition306-2, and boots from the upgrade of the software stored in the filesystem. This effectively upgrades management computer 126. Managementcomputer 126 may also perform other upgrade actions, such as upgradingthe firmware for attached peripheral interface controllers throughserial interfaces to those devices. The upgrade process for managementcomputer 126 may now be complete.

After upgrading management computer 126, controller node 107 may upgradeitself via main computer 130. FIG. 4 depicts an example of the upgradeprocess of main computer 130 according to one embodiment. In a step #1(reference 402) management computer 126 starts the upgrade of controllernode 107 upon finishing the upgrade of itself. In one embodiment,management computer 126 may send a message to main computer 130indicating the upgrade was successful and telling main computer 130 toinitiate upgrade of controller node 107. In this case, upgrade ofcontroller node 107 may include upgrading the software for main computer130.

When main computer 130 receives the indication that management computer126 has successfully upgraded itself, in a step #2 (reference 404), maincomputer 130 verifies the health and eligibility of controller node 107to upgrade. For example, main computer 130 may evaluate that allexpected services are available and that each expected service satisfieshealth checks specific to the service types. If the services conform todefined operational parameters in the health checks, then the healthchecks pass and the upgrade process can proceed. If one of the healthchecks fails, then main computer 130 may attempt to recover from thefailure and the upgrade may proceed after that. The upgrade may notproceed if a failed health check cannot be resolved.

Assuming the verification is successful, in a step #3 (reference 406),main computer 130 starts withdrawing the use of services that controllernode 107 is controlling with respect to physical nodes 102. The servicesbeing performed may be stateless services or stateful services.Stateless services do not need to have any state information stored thatwill persist across the upgrade. However, stateful services may need tohave state information persist across the upgrade. In this case, in astep #4 (reference 408), main computer 130 commits relevant data for theservices to storage 140, which is storage associated with main computer130. Even though stateless services do not commit any state data,stateless services may commit configuration data to storage 140 beforebeing withdrawn. In one embodiment, the configuration data includes aninitial configuration for the service and state data may include datathat was determined based on the operation of a stateful service.Stateless services do not need to use any state data. However, statefulservices may store configuration data and also state data to storage140. The state data may then be used by the stateful services upon theupgrade. Also, the configuration data and state data may persist acrossthe upgrade in storage 140. In a step #5 (reference 410), main computer130 stores configuration data to storage 304 on management computer 126.This configuration data may be configuration data for main computer 130instead of for the services. This configuration data is stored withmanagement computer 126 to ensure that the data persists across theupgrade process, which can be destructive to data stored elsewhere onmain computer 130 or controller node 107. Other storage devices servicemain computer 130 and are attached during main computer 130's normaloperations, and are not available prior to main computer 130 beingoperational. In addition, configuration and state data in managementcomputer 126 may be accessed during the upgrade process prior torestoration of functionality in main computer 130. Upon the storing ofthe data, the withdrawal of the services is completed. The order of thewithdrawal results in a consistent image of the state of controller node107 prior to the upgrade being initiated.

In a step #6 (reference 412), main computer 130 issues an upgraderequest to management computer 126. The upgrade request is sent tomanagement computer 126 because management computer 126 coordinates theupgrade in an automatic manner. For example, management computer 126 iscontacted to initiate the upgrade because management computer 126 mayprovide the upgrade image to main computer 130 upon reboot. In responseto receiving the upgrade request, in a step #7 (reference 414),management computer 126 causes main computer 130 (i.e., controller node107) to reboot. The reboot may be performed such that main computer 130reboots from the new upgrade image. The reboot permits controller node107 to download the upgrade image from management computer 126 and bootfrom the upgrade image.

Upon reboot, main computer 130 may start the upgrade process byattempting to determine the update image. FIG. 5 depicts an example ofthe upgrade process for main computer 130 according to one embodiment.In a step #1 (reference 502), main computer 130, upon reboot, pollsmanagement computer 126 for a software image, such as the updatesoftware image. For example, main computer 130 may send a request tomanagement computer 126 for the update software image. The request issent to management computer 126 because management computer 126 hasreceived the software update package, has verified the software updatepackage, and has communication pathways with main computer 130sufficient for main computer 130 to download the upgrade image frommanagement computer 126 during main computer's 130 start up routine. Ina step #2 (reference 504), management computer 126 determines relevantcomponents of the software update package and sends an update image tomain computer 130. In a step #3 (reference 506), main computer 130stores the update image in storage 140 as its boot disk. This is theimage that main computer 130 boots from upon any restart. Once stored,in a step #4 (reference 508), main computer 130 concludes its start-uproutine by booting from the update software image that was stored instorage 140. The reboot is used to ensure controller node 107 entersinto a known state. This is on contrast to an in-place upgrade, whichmay permit the possibility of entering into unknown error states. Inparticular embodiments, main computer 130 is rebooted from a new orknown master update image. The reboot permits controller node 107 todownload its new update image from management computer 126 and boot fromthat new image.

At this point, main computer 130 (controller node 107) has no state datadue to the update. Thus, controller node 107 does not know if controllernode 107 is part of a multi-controller system (e.g., a cluster) or not.In this case, in a step #5 (reference 510), main computer 130 attemptsto join a pre-existing cluster. In a case of a single-controller system,no cluster exists, and therefore main computer 130 does not join acluster. In this example, it is assumed this is a single-controllersystem. However, a multi-controller system will be described in moredetail below.

In a step #6 (reference 512), main computer 130 retrieves configurationdata and state data that was written to management computer 126previously. This is the configuration and state data for main computer130 and can be used to reconstruct the previously-withdrawn services.Thus, in a step #7 (reference 514), main computer 130 restarts the useof the services in an ordered fashion. For example, stateful services,such as database services and databases, are initialized and populatedwith the pre-upgrade state data first. Main computer 130 may perform anymigrations or transformations to this data before proceeding withfurther service restarting so that any services that rely on this dataare presented with a consistent presentation of data. After restoringthe stateful services, main computer 130 restores the stateless servicesby retrieving configuration data from storage 140 for the statelessservices. Once the services have been restored, main computer 130performs any post-update actions.

In a multi-controller node system, orchestration of the upgrade betweencontroller node systems 107 is needed. FIG. 6 depicts an example of theupgrade process in a multi-controller node system according to oneembodiment. In one embodiment, the multi-controller node system mayinclude two or more controllers. The individual controller upgrade stepsmay be the same as discussed above, but the order of upgrade for eachcontroller node 107 may be defined. In one embodiment, themulti-controller node system may have a zone leader that acts as theleader and holds authoritative data for the cluster. As shown, acontroller node 107-1 is the zone leader. Other member controller nodes107-2-107-N are included in the multi-controller system.

In a step #1 (reference 602), zone leader controller node 107-1 mayreceive and validate the upgrade software package. In a step #2(reference 604), when validated, zone leader controller node 107-1distributes the upgrade software package to other controller nodes107-2-107-n. Each controller node 107-2-107-N also validates the upgradesoftware package.

In a step #3 (reference 606), zone leader controller node 107-1 performshealth checks across the cluster. The health checks ensure that allcontroller nodes 107 in the cluster are operating without any problemsthat may affect the upgrade.

Then, in a step #4 (reference 608), zone leader controller node 107communicates with controller nodes 107-2-107-N to agree on a version ofthe upgrade software to upgrade to. This ensures that all controllernodes 107 are upgrading to the same version. In a step #5 (reference610), if a consensus on a version is agreed on, zone leader controllernode 107-1 selects a member controller 107-2-107-N to undergo theupgrade procedure first. In this case, zone leader controller 107-1 doesnot upgrade itself first. A member controller node 107-2 is selected toupgrade first, after which such controller node 107-2 can be named zoneleader while zone leader 107-1 may maintain the essential data for thecurrent software. This may be important if the upgrade fails. In thecase of a failure, the cluster may revert back to the original software.

Once being elected to perform the upgrade, in a step #6 (reference 612),member controller 107-2 performs the upgrade. This upgrade may beperformed as described above in the single-controller upgrade process.When member controller node 107-2 completes the upgrade process, membercontroller node 107-2 rejoins the cluster. In a step #7 (reference 614),member controller node 107-2 becomes the zone leader of themulti-controller zone. In this case, zone leader controller node 107-1abdicates the zone leadership to member controller node 107-2, which hasbeen upgraded. By abdicating the leadership, member controller node107-2 is the zone leader and operating at the updated software version.This ensures that the zone leader is operating using the latest versionof the software. This may be important because the zone leader is themaster source of many key services, such as database services, and thusneeds to reflect the latest version of the software.

In a #step 8 (reference 616), new zone leader controller node 107-2instructs other controller nodes 107 to upgrade. For example, formerzone leader controller node 107-1 and other controller nodes 107 mayperform the upgrade process in series and/or parallel. In oneembodiment, the controller nodes may be upgraded in series such that aquorum may be maintained. For example, the multi-controller node systemworks on a quorum system so that a majority of the controller nodes 107are available to ensure consistent data. When controller node 107-2 issuccessfully upgraded, new resources may be scheduled on controllernodes 107 or existing ones may be terminated, and preexisting resourceswill have been available throughout the upgrade process.

When controller nodes 107 have been upgraded, controller nodes 107 mayalso instruct attached physical resource nodes 102 to perform in-placeupgrades of individual software packages. For example, the individualsoftware packages may be updated in place without disrupting cloudinstances that may be running on these physical nodes.

Accordingly, the upgrade process may be performed to upgrade adistributed computing system that includes insular, but interdependentcomponents. The withdrawal of services prevents various services fromgenerating or committing changes that may corrupt the state of thesystem. The consistent state image that is maintained provides for areliable upgrade. Also, the multiple verification steps may establish aroot of trust that chains the validation from management computer 126 tomain computer 130, to physical nodes 102. The timing and sequence ofevents, the preservation of state and configuration data on managementcomputer 126, other persistent data storage, and the coordination offunctions across multiple controllers provide the ability to upgradecomponents of the distributed computing system without userintervention.

Orchestration Service

Orchestration Service Architecture

The distributed computing system is arranged in a hierarchy in whichinstances of an orchestration service are distributed in variousentities and interact via a communication service. The orchestrationservice is responsible for creating and maintaining a cohesive andunified system that appears as a single system to the user, despitefailures of both hardware and software, and for coordinating theexecution and management of all system services and ensuring theiravailability. The orchestration service's basic functions includestarting, stopping, restarting, monitoring, configuring, andreconfiguring various system components. The hierarchy of theorchestration service gives the distributed computing system its turnkeycharacter. In this example, this turnkey cohesion is achieved byoperating an instance of the orchestration service on each controllernode 107, physical node 102, and zone 702, which collectively implementthe overall orchestration system service. This example of looselycoupled orchestration service instances (OSI) is organized in a mannerthat decentralizes the overall management of a zone, requiring littledirect communication between orchestration service instances in general,and enabling better scalability as a distributed computing system growsin the number of controller nodes 107 and physical nodes 102 withoutunacceptably increasing the cost of communication within the system.

FIG. 7 depicts an example of a logical system model of the distributedcomputing system according to one embodiment. In this logical systemmodel, a distributed computing zone 702 comprises one or more racks(sometimes referred to as clusters). This abstraction of a zone providesthe single system image of the physical distributed computing system toa user. Each rack may include a single controller 107 and one or morephysical nodes 102. Controller node 107 is an abstraction of the generalcomputing and switching capabilities of a controller node, and physicalnode 102 is an abstraction of general computing capabilities of aphysical node. Each controller node 107 and physical node 102 hostslocal persistent storage, shown as canonical disk icons attached tocontroller nodes 107 and physical nodes 102. Note that the disk iconmerely illustrates the existence of a persistent store sufficient toprovide enough storage capacity so that controller nodes 107 andphysical nodes 102 are able to carry out their functions.

The distributed computing system may provide various services, such asan orchestration service, controller system services, physical nodeservices, and object storage services. In particular, each controllernode 107, physical node 102, and zone 702 runs an instance of theorchestration service (OSI) 703, which manages the overall functions ofthe distributed computing system. Further, a hierarchy of otherorchestration service instances 708, 708, and 712 operate together tocollectively implement the orchestration service. As will be describedin more detail below, the hierarchy of the orchestration serviceinstances communicate indirectly through a communication servicereferred to as a “blackboard service”, which maintains a global systemstate of the distributed computing system. All orchestration serviceinstances 708 and 709 on controller node 107 may maintain this globalsystem state. The indirect communication allows the orchestrationservice to be decentralized and the distributed computing system can bescaled more efficiently as new physical nodes 102 and controller nodes107 can communication through the blackboard service when added to thedistributed computing system. The blackboard service is a highlyavailable configuration and synchronization service. It may exist oneach controller node 107 and can thus survive the failure of any singlecontroller node 107 in a multi controller system. By appealing to thisblackboard service for configuration and state data, the varioussubsystems and components in the distributed computing system have acommon authoritative location for this information. This reduces crosstalk in the distributed computing system and provides for consistentauthoritative data that does not need to be replicated among each of thecomponents of the distributed computing system.

Controller 107 may have multiple orchestration service instances runningon it, such as orchestration service instances 708 and 709.Orchestration service instance 708 manages the controller node andorchestration service instances 709 manage respective system services706. For example, system services 706 operate in the controller nodewithin containers on a respective controller node 107. Orchestrationservice instances 709 are responsible for locally managing the systemservices in the containers. Also, orchestration service instance 708 mayoversee the containers and other controller node operations.Additionally, orchestration service instance 708 may coordinate withother controller nodes 107 or other physical nodes 102 on demand. Theinclusion of orchestration service instances 708 and 709 on controllernodes 107 allows the distributed computing system to manage the overallcoordination and health of the service containers, as opposed to theservices within those containers, and in the case of the zone leader,manage coordination and health of the cluster, such as controller node107 and the services on those controller nodes 107.

Each physical node 102 runs a set of system services 710 that operate onrespective physical nodes 102. These system services 710 performoperations, such as launching virtual machines (VMs) on behalf ofcustomers, storing VM data on node-local persistent storage, andaccessing the distributed Object Storage Service 714. In one example, aportion of a computer system service 706 runs on a controller node 107and is responsible for choosing a physical node 102 that satisfies theresource requirements demanded by the customer for a given VM andcoordinating with a compute service 710 on physical node 102. Eachrunning VM is guaranteed a portion of the local disk storage attached tothe node.

In the hierarchy of orchestration service instances, an orchestrationservice instance 712 also runs on physical node 102 to orchestrate arespective system service 710 running on physical node 102.Orchestration service instances 712 may be responsible for locallymanaging a compute service, a volume service, and a network service,verifying the local service's health, and ensuring the local servicesavailability in spite of failures. The inclusion of orchestrationservice instances 712 on physical nodes 102 allows the distributedcomputing system to scale efficiently as physical nodes 102 can be addedto the system in a reliable fashion. Orchestration service instance 712on physical node 102 is responsible for ensuring that required servicesare running and configured to interact with the attached controller node107. The detection of failures due either to software or hardware faultresults in physical node 102 being marked as offline such thatcontroller node 107 will no longer schedule new resources to be createdor operated on the failed physical node 102.

In one example embodiment, an Object Storage Service (OSS) 714consolidates all remaining physical storage from all disk storage on allphysical nodes into a single large pool of storage. OSS 714 isdecentralized and masks the inevitable failures of nodes and disks; itreplicates data for high availability. To emphasize that OSS 714 is azone-wide resource, FIG. 7 shows the distributed Object Storage Servicespanning the entire zone of controllers and nodes, assimilating the diskstorage from all physical nodes.

Example System Orchestration Service

FIG. 8 illustrates a more detailed example of an orchestration servicearchitecture in the distributed computing system according to oneembodiment. There are three controller nodes 107-1, 107-2, and 107-3,one of which is the distinguished “zone” controller 107-1. The zonecontroller operates as a leader holding the master copies of certaindatabases and other systems that operate in master-slave configurations.Each controller node 107 has an orchestration service instance 708, butthe zone leader's orchestration instance 708-1 is considered superiorand authoritative for many functions to other orchestration serviceinstances 708-2 and 708-3. That is, the zone leader is responsible notonly for ensuring the operation of service containers 802 on itscontroller node, but also for the availability and operational health ofother controller nodes 107 and physical nodes 102.

Each controller node 107 includes a set of system service containers802. Containers 802 isolate system services 706, such as the operatingsystem and application software, including user-space operation systemvirtualization such as LXC or chroot jails and full virtualization suchas KVM. Although containers are described, the container may be are maybe any means of isolating system services 706, and may be considered avirtual machine or other implementation that isolates a system service706. Each container 802 contains an orchestration service instance 709and associated system service 706. Orchestration service instance 709monitors an associated system service 706 that is found in a container802. This is in contrast to orchestration service instance 708, whichmonitors containers 802.

Each physical node 102 contains an orchestration service instance 712and a set of one or more system services 710. Orchestration serviceinstances 712 monitor the associated system services 710 on physicalnode 102. For example, for each system service 710, a correspondingorchestration service instance 712 may be provided to monitor arespective system service 710.

As mentioned earlier, orchestration service instances 703, 708, 709, and712 are organized hierarchically, each with a core set of functionalityand some additional functionality depending on their place in thehierarchy. The zone's orchestration service instance 703 may present theillusion of a single system and may be responsible for exposingcustomer-facing functionality, adding and removing controller nodes 107and physical nodes 102 from zone 702, verifying the health of all nodes,maintaining the global state of the system, backing up any data or stateinformation, and masking failures, for example. Orchestration serviceinstances 708 have functionality that monitor controller node levelinformation, orchestration service instances have functionality thatmonitor system service 706 information for containers 802, andorchestration service instances 712 have functionality that monitorsystem service 710 information in physical nodes 102.

In this example, the controller's node orchestration service instance708 manages the controller node 107 including the status of servicecontainers 802. This includes managing the set of controller-specificsystem services running on it (starting, stopping, restarting, andconfiguring), verifies their health, backs up any data or stateinformation, and ensures that their capabilities are available in spiteof failures. An example system service may include, for example, asystem service provided in OpenStack™ for supporting cloud computingfunctionality. Local data or state information may be recorded onpersistent storage associated with that controller node 102.

Orchestration service instances 709 manage system services 706 within arespective container 802. If any system service 706 fails for whateverreason, it is the responsibility of the associated orchestration serviceinstance 709 to restart that service. Orchestration service instances709, therefore, behave very much like a watchdog over that service.

The physical node's orchestration service instance 712 manages thatphysical node's system services 710 (starting, stopping, restarting, andconfiguring) and ensures their availability. Orchestration serviceinstance 712 may also record local data and state information onpersistent storage associated with that node.

There may be two types of communication in the present exampleorchestration service architecture. First, each orchestration serviceinstance 708, 708, and 712 shares a common blackboard service 804 as ameans of communicating state information, both static and dynamic, withone another. Each orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712,whether in a controller node 107, container 802, or on a physical node102, establishes a session to the blackboard service 804 to record andupdate the global system state. The global system state may include thenames and states of all controller nodes 107 and physical nodes 102, aswell as the names and states of all the system services 706 and 710running in the zone. This global state incorporates the current knownstate of all the controller nodes 107 and physical nodes 102. Second,each orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712 is equipped withan API. An entity in the distributed computing system may invokeoperations of the API to cause that orchestration service instance toperform the indicated function, such as asking for status of a systemservice like MySQL.

Each controller node 107 may record its existence and some additionalstate information in the shared blackboard service 804. In addition,every system service 710 on a controller node 107 may also record itsexistence and some state information in the shared blackboard service(indicating which controller the system services 710 are running on). Inone particular example, it is through the shared blackboard service 804that the zone orchestration service instance 708-1 can learn about a newcontroller node 107 and all of the controller node's system services706, which constitutes a portion of the global system state. Further,orchestration service instance 708 may directly communicate with theorchestration service instances 712 running on each physical node 102 inits rack only when that physical node 102 is booting for the first timeand while that physical node 102 is being integrated into the cloudfabric. Orchestration service instance 712, too, directly communicateswith the controller node's orchestration service instances 708/709 onlyduring the physical node's booting sequence to incorporate it into thecloud fabric.

In one example implementation, unlike a controller node 107, everysystem service 710 (compute, volume, network) on a physical node 102does not record its existence in the shared blackboard service. Instead,these services 710 update a central store residing on the physical node102 at a pre-determined interval to indicate that they are alive (e.g.,a “heartbeat”). Orchestration service instance 712, through its functiondefinition, may detect whether the local store was updated or theservice is not running; if the status has not been updated or theservice is dead, for example, then orchestration service instance 712updates the corresponding physical node's status to “offline” onblackboard service 804, which indicates that something is wrong, and thewhole physical node may go offline. In this way, the zone controllernode 107-1 may discover a problem with that physical node 102 throughits own periodic probing of the global system state in the blackboardservice 804. The service in question may be restarted by theorchestration service instance 712 on the physical node 102.

Particular embodiments maintain the currency of the state that capturesand reflects an ever-changing distributed computing system over a periodof time in the face of failures—especially as the distributed computingsystem grows in size in terms of increasing network traffic and in termsof the number of controller nodes 107, the number of physical nodes 102,and their storage capacity. The hierarchical organization of adistributed computing system mitigates this complexity by constrainingthe communication domains and limiting the impact of hardware failures.Physical nodes 102 in a rack are directly connected to their controllernode 107 only—not to any other controller node 107, which might be donefor high availability in other systems; such an organization bothdefines a communication domain for the physical nodes 102 in the rackand isolates physical nodes 102 from other physical nodes 102 in otherracks. Communication patterns are well-defined, as described earlier,because the communication in the system flows over different system-widelogical networks that are layered on top of the same physical network.For example, data traffic between running virtual machines occurs overthe guest logical network, whereas all the orchestration service serverinstances communicate over the management logical network.

A portion of this global system state is dynamic, changing as systemcomponents join or leave the system. A major portion of the globalsystem state is static, characterized typically by configuration datathat is fixed. This configuration data in the distributed computingsystem is represented by distributed computing “models”, which areschema definitions for data that is gathered for objects in the systemthat have state information. Orchestration service instances 708, 709,and 712 create these model objects in the memory of the associatedcontroller node 107, container 802, or physical node 102. Controllernodes 107 make changes to the state of these model objects, and thesechanges are reflected in the blackboard service 804 by invoking theappropriate methods on the objects; thus, the “clients” of the modelobjects leave the details of interacting with blackboard service 804 tothe model objects. Some of the attributes of these objects change overtime, and thus are dynamic, like the status of a container 802, whichcould be “online” or “off-line.” What portion of the global system stateis dynamic and what portion depends on the semantics of the objects thatare stored in the state.

The following will now discuss the blackboard service in more detail.

Example Orchestration Service Architecture Using the Blackboard Service

FIG. 9 shows a logical view of an example orchestration servicearchitecture illustrating the orchestration service and a sharedblackboard service 804 according to one embodiment. This logical viewshows only the controller nodes 107, containers 802, and physical nodes102 independent of what controller node the containers reside in andwhat racks the physical nodes reside in.

Each orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712 may establish asession to blackboard service 804 to register its existence so thatother orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712 may become awareof it. In one embodiment, a presence service (M-P) 902 performs thisfunction to announce the existence of an orchestration service instance.In one embodiment, the orchestration service instance and presenceservice 902 exist as a pair. They are logically part of the sameservice, and therefore may be a single component rather than separatecomponents as illustrated in this example implementation. Presenceservice 902 may also perform a second function—conducting an election onbehalf of a system service that must be organized as a master with oneor more slaves, which will be discussed in more detail below.

Each presence service 902 may have a single session to the blackboardservice 804. Also, each orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712may have a separate, distinct, session to the blackboard service 804.This session from each orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712may be used for its communication with as a shared service, rather thanfor existence, which is the function of the M-P server instance. When asingle session is mentioned, it is generic and may actually encompassmultiple sessions, depending on how presence service 902 and eachorchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712 are configured and isnot meant to limit the implementation. Note that the line indicating thesession from the orchestration service is shown to intersect with thesession line emanating from the M-P server instance for clarity; thesessions are, in this example, separate and distinct sessions and arenot shared.

Each orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712 may have a secondcommunication path via an orchestration service API 904. Entitiescommunicate with an orchestration service instance by invoking APIoperations. For example, presence service 902 can ask its associatedorchestration service instance 708, 709, or 712: “Are you healthy?”through API 904 by sending an appropriate HTTP request. Further,orchestration service instance 708, 708, and 712 can respond to APIinvocations from other components, such as other orchestration serverinstances.

The dynamic state is determined by the existence or non-existence ofpresence service 902. For example, if either presence service 902 in acontainer 802 fails or the container 802 itself fails (causing presenceservice 902 instance to also fail), then the data node corresponding tocontainer 802 will be automatically deleted from the global system statein blackboard service 804. It may not be enough to record existence ornonexistence of a data object because some entity may be required todetect these changes or be notified of them and in either case, takesome appropriate action, if necessary. That entity is the set oforchestration service instances that are responsible for periodicallychecking the global system state for the existence of all the servicecontainers 802 residing on their respective controllers, detecting thesechanges, and updating the affected model objects. In turn, thistranslates into updating the corresponding data objects in blackboardservice 804.

FIG. 10 depicts a simplified flowchart 1000 of monitoring blackboardservice 804 according to one embodiment. At 1002, blackboard service 804receives a current known state of all the controller nodes 107, physicalnodes 102, and service containers 802. Upon initial startup, controllernodes 107, physical nodes 102, and service containers 802 register theirpresence in blackboard service 804. The current known state may alsoinclude state information determined during performing of systemservices. For example, problems discovered by any orchestration serviceinstance 708, 709, and 712 may be sent to blackboard service 804. In oneexample, orchestration service instance 712 may detect a failure ofphysical node 102 and update the status of physical node 102 onblackboard service 804.

At 1004, orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712 may monitorblackboard service 804 for changes. When changes are detected,orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712 determine if an actionneeds to be taken. The actions may include changing data structures torepresent the changes, or taking a remedial action if there is aproblem. If no action needs to be taken, then the process reiterates tomonitoring blackboard service 804 for more changes. If there is anaction to take, at 1006, orchestration service instances 708, 709, and712 determine an action to perform. An action may be restarting aservice or electing a new master. At 1008, orchestration serviceinstances 708, 709, and 712 perform the action. In the above,orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712 perform the monitoringand performing the action through blackboard service 804. Indirectlycommunicating through blackboard service 804 allows the monitoring to beperformed by a hierarchy of distributed orchestration service instances708, 709, and 712. The blackboard exists outside of the hierarchy ofdistributed orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712 and istherefore available of all components of the hierarchy. In addition, theblackboard itself is structured hierarchically, providing elements ofthe hierarchy the ability to walk a tree and determine the relationshipof components in a hierarchical fashion.

In one embodiment, the hierarchy of orchestration service instances 708,709, and 712 determines what each orchestration service instance ismonitoring. For example, orchestration service instance 708 ofcontroller node 102 manages controller node 102, which includes thestatus of service containers 802. Orchestration service instances 709are responsible for monitoring the related system services 706 inservice containers 802. This includes managing system service health,controlling and managing system services 706, and report system servicestatus to blackboard service 804. Orchestration service instances 712 onphysical nodes 102 monitor system services 710 on physical nodes 102.The zone controller node 107-1, in addition to performing controllernode operations on the local controller, is responsible for sweeping thecluster and inspecting health and issuing management commands.

System services may be operated in a master-slave configuration. When asystem service 706 is created in a container 802, an election processmay be performed. This process is described below in the presencecomponent.

Example Presence Component

FIG. 11 depicts an example of a presence service 902 according to oneembodiment. Presence service 902 may execute as either a singlestandalone process or a pair of processes, which are associated with anorchestration service server instance. More specifically, presenceservice 902 may include two modes, namely census and election. In FIG.11, there is a presence service 902-1 associated with the zonecontroller node 107-1 and another presence service 902-2 associated withorchestration service instance 709 in a container 802. Presence service902 may operate in two modes of census and election.

In census mode (configured based on a configuration file), presenceservice 902-2 executes is a process and may register itself withblackboard service 804 to indicate that presence service 902-2 existsand is operational on behalf of orchestration service instance 709. Thisregistration involves creating a data node in an established session(the connection to the blackboard service) between presence service902-2 and the blackboard service 804. In one example implementation, adata node under the blackboard service is named uniquely by a path thatresembles a UNIX filesystem to a file or directory such as/orchestration/presence/node/{controller#}-{MAC address}, which names aspecific node as a combination of the controller node number of thecontroller node and the MAC address of the controller node's primarynetwork interface. Controller nodes 107 are assigned integer values, andthese are the controller node numbers. A data node representingexistence is sometimes referred to as “ephemeral” because its lifetimeis tied to the session and if either the session or the clientapplication program fails, the data node may be automatically deleted bythe blackboard service.

In order to test for existence, one approach is to query the blackboardservice periodically and check to see whether the data node fororchestration service instance 709 in question exists. If the data nodedoes not exist, then this means orchestration service instance 709likely failed because presence service 902-2 died and ultimatelyreleased the data node. If the data node still exists, then theassociated service still exists. In addition, census mode may furtherdetermine the “health” of the associated orchestration service instance709. In census mode, presence service 902-2 queries its companionorchestration service instance 709 via the API and asks the question“Are you healthy?” In turn, the orchestration service instance 709performs a service-specific health check of orchestration serviceinstance 709. The path of the health check may start with presenceservice 902-2 in service container 802 making a query to orchestrationservice instance 709 via API 904 asking “Are you healthy?,” which inturn invokes a probe to ask the same question of system service 706.

Orchestration service instance 708 (e.g., the zone controller nodeleader) may have two responsibilities: first, as explained earlier,orchestration service instance 708 manages all containers 802 for systemservices on controller node 107; and second, orchestration serviceinstance 708 periodically inspects the blackboard service 804 for thepresence of the ephemeral data nodes for all the controller nodes 107and all physical nodes 102 in a distributed computing system. It is thissecond function that enables orchestration service instance 708 toquickly react to failure anywhere in the system and take appropriatemeasures to rectify the situation. The other controller nodes 107 payattention only to their own containers 802. In FIG. 11, periodicinspection is shown with a line emanating from the “periodic” functiongroup to blackboard service 804. Since the orchestration service leaderis inspecting the global system state recorded in the blackboard serviceon a recurring basis for any changes, whether good (such as a nodejoining the system) or bad (such as a container failing), theorchestration service leader is also responsible for updating otherportions of the global system state that were affected by the change.For example, the zone leader polls the blackboard services 804periodically (inspects) to see if all the controller nodes 107 andphysical nodes 102 that it expects to be in the state are present andaccounted for by checking for the data objects corresponding to presenceservices 902. If the data object has disappeared, then the zone leaderconcludes that the controller node 107 or physical node 102 has failedand marks as “offline” the model or data object corresponding to thisspecific controller node or specific physical node. Alternatively, thezone leader could wait for a notification that the data objectcorresponding to presence service 902 has been deleted from the globalsystem state and take action then, rather than constantly checking forchanges. Waiting for notification about an event may be a moreadvantageous approach than polling, particularly as the system grows insize as well as the corresponding global system state because pollingmay consume unnecessary CPU cycles.

In election mode, orchestration service instances 709 run a second,standalone process, whose job may be to manage elections, whichencompasses both electing and unelecting. Note that not everyorchestration service instance requires presence service 902 to operatein both census and election modes. As explained earlier, if the systemservice is organized in a configuration with a single master and one ormore slaves, then there will be presence service 902 of two processes tohandle both the census and election modes.

In container 802, the election mode process in presence service 902-2establishes a long-lived session to the blackboard service 804. Eachelection mode process works in conjunction with election mode processeson the other controller nodes 107 for a specific system service toensure that if the service requires a single leader, then betweenthemselves presence services 902 will elect a new leader. Further, theelection mode processes ensure that there is always one leader, not twoor three.

FIG. 12A depicts a simplified flowchart 1200 of a method for performingthe election process according to one embodiment. At 1202, a systemservice 710 is created and installed. At 1204, presence service 902determines if the service is a single service. If so, the process ends.However, if the service must be operated in a master-slaveconfiguration, the service determines if it is the first instance at1206. If so, at 1208, presence service 902 elects itself as master. Ifno other containers for this service are registered, the service electsitself as the lowest number registration of the service. This processincludes changing the configuration of the service to act as master andloads all necessary data to bring the service online as master. In oneembodiment, this includes assigning a well-defined floating IP addressso that other system services may contact this service as the master.The IP address assigned to the master service is defined as alwaysreflect the master instance of that service and is thus regarded as welldefined in that all other service know to look to this address for themaster. If the master were to change, the IP address would be updated toreflect the location of the new master.

If there are other instances, at 1210, the master presence service 902of the orchestration service will trigger a health check and initiateelection to differentiate system service 710 as either master or slave.At 1212, during the election process, presence service 902 will findthat another instance of the system service 710 already exists and isoperating as master. Finding this to be the case, at 1214, presenceservice 902 builds itself as a slave to the existing master if themaster passes health checks and records its presence and operationalstate as a replicated slave in blackboard service 804.

Example Global System States

As described above with respect to blackboard service 804, the globalsystem state of the distributed computing system is composed of thestate of all controller nodes 107, containers 802, physical nodes 102,and the zone, among other things. FIG. 12B depicts an example of theglobal system state according to one embodiment. Orchestration serviceserver instances 708, 709, and 712 and presence service instances 902create the global system state as controller nodes 107, physical nodes102, and containers 802 are started up. As physical nodes 102,controller nodes 107, and containers 802 fail over time and leave thezone, or as they return to service and join the zone, the global systemstate keeps track of this ever-changing situation; all the controllernodes and the zone leader detect changes in the system and maintain thisstate. The state, as described earlier, is recorded in the blackboardservice 804, a global resource shared by all orchestration serviceinstances 708, 709, and 712 and all presence services 902. Blackboardaptly describes its function; data is written, and viewers withappropriate permission can read the data nearly instantaneously anddetermine if changes have been made. Any interested (but authenticated)party may query the global system state to find out at a glance suchthings like which controller nodes 107 are operational, which physicalnodes 102 are down, and whether a specific system service is online.

FIG. 12B describes the global system state of a three-controllerdistributed computing system with eighteen physical nodes 102apportioned across the three controller nodes 107. The data of theglobal system state stored in blackboard service 804 is organized muchlike a hierarchical Unix file system where any data object in the filesystem tree is identified uniquely by a path of components separated bya “/,” starting at a root designated as “/”; the components are labeledwith human-readable strings. Orchestration service specific stateinformation may be rooted at /orchestration. For example,/orchestration/containers/pxe-1 may be the path name to the prebootexecution environment (PXE) container named pxe-1 on controller 1. Inthe blackboard service, each component in the path is a data object thatmay both have data and “child” data objects, that is, it can behave asboth a file and a directory to use file system terminology. Thus, thecontainers data object may have data but may also have several childobjects, of which pxe-1 is an example. The pxe-1 data object containsinformation.

The path /orchestration/presence identifies all the presence servicecomponents for physical nodes 102, controller nodes 107, and containers802. Every instance of presence service 902 whether in a controller node107, physical node 102, or container 802, establishes a session toblackboard service 804 and creates an ephemeral data object on behalf ofthe controller node 107, physical node 102, or container 802 namedrespectively. FIG. 12D shows three examples of the presence stateinformation registered on behalf of a controller node 107, a physicalnode 102, and a container 802 when presence service 902 is configured incensus mode according to one embodiment. Specifically, presence stateinformation for controller node 1, presence state information forphysical node 2—00:8c:fa:10:b7:90 (Ethernet address) in controller node2, and presence state information registered on behalf of containernamed 3-c2:7c:73:37:7e:61 (Ethernet address) on controller node 3. If acontainer 802, controller node 107, or physical node 102 fails, presenceservice 902 also fails, and consequently, the ephemeral data node in theblackboard service 804 is automatically deleted. If a client registeredinterest in the fate of this data node, blackboard service 804 wouldsend a notification back to the client when it deleted the data node.

In FIG. 12D, the containers label is a component in the path/orchestration/containers and identifies all the service containers 802created in the distributed computing system that have both created theirmodels and registered their existence in the blackboard service 804under the containers label. The presence service 902 associated with theservice container 802 is responsible for establishing a session toblackboard service 804 and creating an ephemeral data node representingthe existence of the service container 802. If the container 802 fails,then the data node is automatically deleted from the/orchestration/containers data object, and thereafter is no longer partof the global system state. Containers 802 are the data object stored inblackboard service 804 as a child of the orchestration data object. Asan example, /orchestration/containers/dnspublic-1 identifies a specificservice container 802 named dnspublic-1 for the system service calledDNSPublic. In the distributed computing implementation, the namednspublic-1 also identifies the unique name assigned to every controllernode 102 starting with the number 1, and so in this case, the DNSPublicservice container resides on controller node 1. This naming scheme canbe seen in FIG. 12C for the other system service containers. Similarly,there is an instance of the service container for DNSPublic oncontroller node 2 and controller node 3, and the instances are nameddnspublic-2 and dnspublic-3, respectively. FIG. 12D shows the state of acontainer data object in blackboard service 804 correspondingspecifically to haproxy-1 residing on controller node 1. Some of thestatic attributes are “controller_num” (value 1), “external_ip”(10.13.56.8), and “container_name” (haproxy). There are two dynamicattributes for the container “status” (online) and “state” (running).Recall that these two dynamic attributes will be maintained by theorchestration service instance 708 in controller node 107.

The path /orchestration/controllers identifies all the controller nodes107 that have registered both their “models” and their existence withblackboard service 804. Controller nodes 804 are named by a uniqueinteger, starting at 1. There are three controller nodes 804 in thedistributed computing system described by the global system state inFIG. 12B. The presence service 902 associated with the controller node107 is responsible for establishing a session to blackboard service 804and creating an ephemeral data node representing controller node 107. Ifthe controller node 107 fails, then the ephemeral data node isautomatically deleted in blackboard service 804. FIG. 12C shows thestate information specifically for controller node 2 given the path/orchestration/controllers/2. The state information is stored directlyin the data object labeled “2.” The data resembles a dictionary thatassociates a key like “status” with a value like “online.” In general,all state information for the distributed computing system is stored asa kind of dictionary. Further, “ip_addresses” identifies the threelogical networks to which the controller is attached, namely,“data_net,” “pxe_net,” and “mgmt_net.” “switch_net” is empty (null). Theorchestration service instance and the associated presence services 902communicate with each other over the management logical networkidentified by “mgmt_net.” The “mac_adddress” key identifies theEthernet, or MAC, address of the network interface card on controllernode 107.

The /orchestration/nodes path in blackboard service 804 identifies allphysical nodes 102 that were operational at some point in their lifetimeand have registered their “model” with blackboard service 804.Operational at some time is used because unless that physical node 102is taken out of service permanently, it remains in the structure of theglobal system state as an entry; only its “state” requires updating.FIG. 12C shows the physical node state for physical node named1-00:8c:fa:10:b9:60 in controller node 1. The name of a physical node isa two-tuple, including the controller node number (an integer) and theEthernet or MAC address associated with the physical node's networkinterface card: <controller#>-<Ethernet address>. Physical node 102 isassociated with controller node 1 and an Ethernet address00:8c:fa:10:b9:60 and so has the name 1-00:8c:fa:10:b9:60. Nearly all ofthis physical node state is static configuration data that will notchange. There is a dynamic component indicated by “state,” which showswhether physical node 102 is “online” or “offline.” If physical node 102fails, then it is this “state” attribute in the model that will beupdated by the Zone leader to “offline.”

The /orchestration/zone path in blackboard service 804 includes theelection and external_ips data objects. As described above, anorchestration service controller node has an elected leader and thusmust participate in any election amongst the orchestration servicecontroller nodes. Associated with the orchestration service controllernode is presence service 902 configured in both census and electionmode, the former to register existence and the latter to conduct theelection if one is needed. Election mode uses the blackboard service tohelp in conducting an election. Specifically, the blackboard servicedoes this by assigning monotonically increasing and non-overlappingsequence numbers (starting at 0) to the data objects as they arecreated. If three presence services 902 in election mode try to createthe data object in blackboard service 804 to register its existence, thefirst to succeed in creating a data object has integer 0 assigned aspart of the name of the data node, the second has integer 1 assigned aspart of the name of the data node, and so on. The leader is the dataobject with the lowest assigned integer, in this case, 0, and sopresence service 902 associated with that data node is deemed the“leader.” The other two presence services 902 in election mode “watch”these data objects just in case the acknowledged leader dies (and thedata object removed) and set in motion a new election. FIG. 12E showsthe data objects for the orchestration service zone controller node aschildren in the path /orchestration/zone/election in the blackboardservice according to one embodiment. This method of electing a leader isa particular recommended example, but other ways may exist. The path—

_c_60855840-7d0e-4426-8953-fae43d415760-lock-0000000000 ← leader_c_898a913b-72ec-46f1-924f-d15453aa6fa1-lock-0000000013_c_41c9d9ac-80be-4921-bcb0-ceef3caeeedb-lock-0000000012

/orchestration/zone data object in the blackboard service also has asignificant amount of state, as is shown in FIG. 12F. The zone leaderhas an IP address, namely “zone_ip” with value “172.17.0.150” as part ofthe state. Another attribute is named “customer_config,” which is, asthe name suggests, customer configuration information actually providedby the customer and stored in a distributed computing system as part ofthe global system state.

The /orchestration/zone/external_ips data object contains an exhaustiveand complete set of all the external IP addresses that can be assignedto controller nodes, physical nodes 102, and containers 802 in aspecific distributed computing system. These IP addresses are dividedinto two sets, a set of reserved IP addresses in a set of available IPaddresses. A reserved IP address is prefixed with the letter “r”,separated from the IP address by a hyphen. An available IP address isprefixed with the letter “a” with a hyphen separating them. In thefollowing example the available IP addresses are shown in bold fromamongst all the reserved IP addresses.

r-10.130.61.160, r-10.130.61.161, r-10.130.61.162, r-10.130.61.163,r-10.130.61.169, r-10.130.61.168, r-10.130.61.165, r-10.130.61.164,r-10.130.61.167, r-10.130.61.166, r-10.130.61.151, r-10.130.61.152,r-10.130.61.150, r-10.130.61.159, r-10.130.61.158, r-10.130.61.157,r-10.130.61.156, r-10.130.61.155, r-10.130.61.154, r-10.130.61.153,r-10.130.61.180, r-10.130.61.181, r-10.130.61.182, r-10.130.61.183,r-10.130.61.184, r-10.130.61.185, r-10.130.61.187, r-10.130.61.186,r-10.130.61.189, r-10.130.61.188, a-10.130.61.254, a-10.130.61.253,a-10.130.61.255, r-10.130.61.10, r-10.130.61.11, a-10.130.61.9,r-10.130.61.170, r-10.130.61.173, r-10.130.61.174, r-10.130.61.171,r-10.130.61.172, r-10.130.61.178, ...

The path /orchestration/services names all the system services that runon the controller node 107, not those that run on physical nodes 102.They include services named nova, haproxy, pxe, dnspublic, glance,stats, rabbitmq, keystone, logging, novautils, dashboard, and mysql. Forthose services that are organized in a master-slave relationship, theremust be an election to pick a leader. This is implemented usingblackboard service 804 and the same recipe for selecting a leader,namely, the lowest numbered integer. FIG. 12E shows the path for two ofthe services dnspublic and mysql, each ending in the election component.Below that component in the path is another data object that correspondsto presence service 902 (in election mode) associated with an instanceof that service.

In summary, the orchestration service instance on behalf of somecontroller node 107, physical node 102, or container 802 creates acorresponding configuration model as a data object in blackboard service804 when that system component is created. This model is represented asa kind of dictionary that maps keys to values and is the state of thesystem component. It has a configuration portion that is static andunchanging, and has a dynamic component that may change during thelifetime of the service. When a presence service 902 instance in censusmode registers its existence in the blackboard service, it creates anephemeral data object corresponding to a controller node 107, container802, or physical node 102. If that presence service 902 fails or theassociated orchestration service instance fails (or the controller node107, container 802, or physical node 102), then the data object will beautomatically deleted in blackboard service 804. Since the state of thatservice has now changed, it is the job of the zone leader to determinewhat has changed by periodically inspecting the global system state andupdating the corresponding models. It is the collection of orchestrationservice instances and the associated presence services 902 (in censusmode or in election mode, or both), in conjunction with the zone leader,that maintains the global system state for a running distributedcomputing system. The global system state is a view into the “health” ofthe distributed computing system, enabling a whole host of actions, suchas the following: potentially faster recovery from failures, isolatingparts of the system that may be offering degraded performance, bettercapacity planning, and more effective use of system resources.

Failure Recovery

In one example embodiment, a distributed computing system copes withfailures of a physical node 102, a controller node 107, or a servicecontainer 802 by detecting failures and by automatically restoringservice functionality. The orchestration service instance functions mayinclude keeping the system infrastructure running despite failures. Aseparate sub-component of the orchestration service operates to detectand report presence data by registering its controller node existence inthe global state. Orchestration service controller nodes 107periodically probe the shared blackboard service 804 to detect changesin the dynamic attributes of all service containers 802. In addition, anorchestration service zone controller node periodically inspects allcontroller nodes and physical nodes. Changes are detected by noting thepresence or absence of the existence registration. When changes aredetected, controller node 107 updates status information for theaffected records in the shared blackboard service 804. If a problemoccurs, action is taken appropriate to the affected service, such asrestarting a service or electing a new master.

Failures may occur in the distributed computing system. However, due tothe distributed nature, portions of the distributed computing system maycontinue to operate. That is, the distributed computing system may bepartially operational and partially failed at the same time. Asdescribed above, controller node 107 includes containers 802 thatisolate services 706 from other services 706 operating in othercontainers 802 on controller node 107. The containerization of services706 is required as the software is designed to operate across machineboundaries. The distributed computing system expects dedicated filesystems, process name space, and network stacks to be available forcommunication with other discrete components each with their own filesystem, network stack, and process name space. Each service 706 in acontainer 802 provides an aspect of the overall service being providedby the distributed computing system, but operates independently withoutsharing elements such that containers 802 may be easily replaced byanother container 802 designed to perform the same service. Particularembodiments leverage this concept to recover from failures quickly.

FIG. 13 depicts an example of a controller node 107 for recovering froma failure according to one embodiment. Orchestration service instance708 is configured to manage containers 802 that operate on controllernode 107 as described above. Container 802 includes orchestrationservice instance 709 and service 706. As discussed above, orchestrationservice instance 708 manages service 706. At some point, service 706 mayfail, which may be a known or unknown failure. For example, an unknownfailure is a failure in which a root cause cannot be determined or hasnot been predicted and accounted for previously such that thedistributed computing system can recover according to a proceduredefined specifically to address a known failure signature or state. Aknown failure may be where the root cause could be determined or hasbeen previously defined such that the present failure matches asignature or profile of a known failure and thus may be acted on withspecific knowledge as to the cause and effect of the known failure, suchas by employing a specific remediation procedure designed to address theknown cause or remedy the known effects. However, orchestration serviceinstance 708 does not care if the failure is known or unknown. This isbecause orchestration service instance 708 does not troubleshoot thefailure. Rather, orchestration service instance 708 determines alast-known good state and restarts a new container 802 with service 706operating from the last-known good state.

In the process flow, in a step 1 (reference 1302), orchestration serviceinstance 708 detects a failure of container 802. In one embodiment,orchestration service instance 708 may detect the failure by monitoringblackboard service 804. For example, as discussed above, presenceservice 902 may lose its session to blackboard service 804 when service706 fails. This may cause the removal of state information for service706 in blackboard service 804. Orchestration service instance 708 maydetect the change in the status on blackboard service 804. In this case,service 706 in container 802 does not directly notify orchestrationservice instance 708 of the failure. This simplifies the communicationof failures in the distributed computing system as orchestration serviceinstance 708 can monitor from a central point whether failures areoccurring.

In a step 2 (reference 1304), orchestration service instance 708terminates service container 802. Instead of troubleshooting the failureand attempting to continue using service 706 in container 802,orchestration service instance 708 terminates the container. By nottroubleshooting the failure, speed in recovering from the failure may begained as will be discussed in more detail below.

In a step 3 (reference 1306), orchestration service instance 708determines a last-known good state for service 706. For example, becauseoperating system-level virtualization or containerization is used suchthat various services 706 are isolated from other services 706 and alsoother components, such as main computer 130, using process name spacepartitioning and independent or otherwise isolated network stacks, thelast-known good state of service 706 can be determined. In one example,a copy on write scheme is used where a file system for container 802 isfrozen and service 706 in container 802 operates from this frozen filesystem image, recording deviations from the frozen file system in thecourse of operating the service. The frozen file system may constitutethe last known good state of service 706 and is a full image needed torestart the service from scratch. Since the changes have not beenwritten to the known good state of service 706, orchestration serviceinstance 708 can use this last-known good state with confidence that itwill not fail.

In a step 4 (reference 1308), orchestration service instance 708restarts a new service container 802 using the last known good state ofservice 706. New service container 802 includes orchestration serviceinstance 708 and service 706. However, the differences from the filesystem of the last known good state have been discarded and service 706in new service container 802 begins anew from the known good state. Thismay remove any problem that occurred while operating from the last knowngood state. This method of failure recovery is faster than recoveringfrom the failure. Because of the isolation of services 706 in containers802, orchestration service instance 708 can terminate a failed container802 and restart a new container 802 very quickly.

In a step 5 (reference 1310), service 706 in new container 802 mayrecover state data and configuration data for service 706. The statedata and configuration data may be found in blackboard service 804,persistent storage 140, or other local storage for container 802.

In a distributed computing system, failures are inevitable. However, dueto the speed and knowledge that services 706 will be started from aknown good state, the distributed computing system may reliably performin light of failures. The failure recovery leverages operatingsystem-level virtualization, storage of configuration and state dataoutside of container 802, using a copy-on-write approach for the filesystem of container 802 to recover from the failure and allow for a newcontainer 802 to be used when a failure occurs. This allows the recoveryfrom a failure from a broad array of known and unknown failures. Thedistributed computing system does not need to determine the failurestate, the path of that state, and a remediation from the failure.Rather, the failure is recovered from by rapidly reverting to a knowngood state.

Entropy Generation

FIG. 14 depicts an example of providing entropy in the distributedcomputing system according to one embodiment. The entropy may be atime-based finite resource. Applications, such as ciphers, rely onhigh-quality entropy to produce secure cryptographic results.Cryptographic software elements of operating systems in the distributedcomputing system rely on entropy to operate. Because the entropy is afinite resource, exhaustion of the entropy can result in significantsoftware operational delays as the software elements have to wait togather the needed entropy. In the distributed computing system, theremay be limited sources of entropy and exhaustion may affect theoperational performance of the distributed computing system. Forexample, due to the possible addition of entities in the distributedcomputing system, such as multiple new virtual machines may be startedon physical nodes 102 to provide services 712, the providing of reliableand sufficient entropy is necessary. In one example, as multiple newvirtual machine instances are started, cryptographic operations runningwithin the virtual machines need entropy to generate cryptographicmaterial for securing communications. When a large number of virtualmachine instances are created concurrently, the virtual machineinstances may compete for entropy and may suffer performance degradationwhen launching as the virtual machine instances wait for the neededentropy to complete the cryptographic operations.

Accordingly, particular embodiments provide high-quality entropythroughout the distributed computing system. In one embodiment, a truerandom number generator is used to generate entropy. The true randomnumber generator generates random numbers from a physical process ratherthan from a computer program. The random numbers provided by the truerandom number generator may be completely unpredictable and thusreliable. The true random number generator may be a hardware randomnumber generator.

As shown, management computer 126 includes a true random numbergenerator 1402. True random number generator 1402 may be included inmanagement computer 126 as an independent hardware platform separate andapart from main computer 130. True random number generator 1402generates the random numbers as entropy in a time-based manner via ahardware process. Then, management computer 126 sends the entropy tomain computer 130. Management computer 126 may communicate the entropythrough a communication network using a protocol, such as transfercontrol protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), UNIX sockets, UNIX devices,or combinations thereof. Main computer 130 may communicate the combinedentropy via a communication network through protocols as discussedabove, such as through TCP/IP.

To provide additional entropy, a pseudo-random software entropygenerator 1404 is used to add entropy to be combined with the entropyreceived from true random number generator 1402. By using the truerandom number generator and the software random number generator, alarger amount of entropy may be generated, but may be reliable in thatthe true random number generator is generating a part of the entropy.Other sources may also contribute to the entropy. In contrast to usingjust pseudo-random software entropy generator 1404, using true randomnumber generator 1402 in management computer 126 provides more reliableentropy and more entropy than can be generated by pseudo-random softwareentropy generator 1404. That is, true random number generator 1402 maybe able to generate entropy faster than pseudo-random software entropygenerator 1404. Also, true random number generator 1402 generates higherquality and more reliable entropy than pseudo-random software entropygenerator 1404 resulting in superior cryptographic functions. Further,hardware resources of main computer 130 do not need to be used togenerate entropy when the hardware entropy is generated by managementcomputer 126. Rather, as discussed above, main computer 130 operatescontainers 802 that include services 706, and services 706 controlservices 712 that are operating on physical nodes 102. Resources forthese operations may not be used in using a hardware generator in maincomputer 130.

Main computer 130 then sends the entropy to physical nodes 102 in whichcontroller node 107 is controlling. For example, physical nodes 102 maybe located in the same rack as controller node 107. In otherembodiments, main computer 130 may send the entropy to other physicalnodes 102 in other racks.

Each physical node 102 may receive the entropy. For example, ahypervisor 1406 within physical node 102 may receive the entropy.Multiple virtual machines 1408 may be running on top of hypervisor 1406.Each virtual machine 1408 may be running a service 710 in addition to anorchestration service instance 712. Service 710 may require the entropyfor performing certain operations, such as for cryptography operations.

To provide the entropy from hypervisor 1406 to virtual machine 1408,hypervisor 1406 may provide an emulated entropy device 1410. Emulatedentropy device 1410 may be a virtual device that is stored in an addressspace. To read the entropy, virtual machine 1408 includes an entropydriver 1412 that knows the address where to read the entropy fromentropy device 1410. When entropy is needed, entropy driver 1412retrieves entropy from entropy device 1410. In this case, hypervisor1406 may retrieve the entropy from main computer 130, present theentropy to entropy device 1410, and then entropy driver 1412 retrievesthe entropy from entropy device 1410. The above process may be performedin each physical node 102 where a hypervisor 1406 provides entropyretrieved from main computer 130 of controller node 107 to virtualmachines 1408. Due to the large amount of entropy provided usingmanagement computer 126 and main computer 130, it is possible to have adistributed computing environment that can on demand expand the numberof virtual machines 1408 without exhausting the entropy. The use of truerandom number generator 1402 in management computer 126 allows thedistributed computing system to generate the large amount of entropy.

The providing of a large amount of entropy is important in thedistributed computing system because there is potential for greatvariance and demand for entropy. Some operational states of thedistributed computing system may be so virtual machine turnover, thatis, the creation and destruction of virtual machines 1408, while otherstates may see exceptionally high turnover. When high turnover results,the need for entropy may increase dramatically. The distributedcomputing system can handle the high turnover using the generation ofentropy via true random number generator 1402 in management computer126. The entropy provided via controller node 107 to physical nodes 102allows the creation of virtual machines 1408 on physical nodes 102. Byleveraging management computer 126 to generate the entropy, the numberof components in the distributed computing system is reduced as physicalnodes 102 do not need to generate entropy. There may be hundreds ofphysical nodes 102, and having each one have to have a true randomnumber generator increases complexity. Instead, management computer 126serves as a true random number generator for a collection of physicalnodes 102 attached to a single controller node 107.

Example Service Specific Behavior

In one example embodiment, physical nodes 102 each of which exhibits aservice-specific behavior or personality. These personalities arecaptured in function definitions, which in this example may be referredto as “melodies.” The function definitions may manage the serviceconfiguration, monitor the health of the associated system service,controller or node, and/or react to changes in the health status, andcope with failures in the system, for example.

In certain example embodiments, each orchestration service instance 708,709, and 712 is configured to be service-specific and is not just asingle, monolithic entity. What functions a particular orchestrationservice instance 708, 709, and 712 might perform may depend on theassociated system service. For example, the orchestration serviceinstance 709 associated with a MySQL server service in a container 802is configured to check the health of the MySQL server, elect a newmaster, periodically back up the database into a file, determine thevirtual IP address of the MySQL Server, or initialize a new MySQL slave,among many other functions.

Service-specific behavior of an example orchestration service instance708, 709, and 712 may be referred to as a “personality.” For example,there may be a personality for the orchestration service instance 712residing on a physical node 102, which is configured to manage thesystem services 710 on physical node 102, varying personalities for theorchestration service instance 708 residing in a container 802 that isspecific to the system service 706, and there may be a personality forthe orchestration service instance 708 running in a controller node 102.A controller node instance of an orchestration service instance 708 mayhave a very different personality from the orchestration serviceinstance 709 in a container 802 and the orchestration service instance712 on the physical node 102 because the controller node instancemanages all the containers 802 for system services on controller node802, for example.

In this example, orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712capture this notion of a personality in certain function definitions.Each orchestration service instance 708, 709, and 712 is configured atruntime with its specific personality by loading specific modules thatcorrespond to a particular function definition. In one exampleimplementation of the distributed computing system, these modules may bePython programs. In one example embodiment, there may be six suchmodules making up the function definition. FIG. 15 shows some examplesof an orchestration service instance 708, 709, or 712 configured withservice specific personalities according to one embodiment. Thefollowing are descriptions of example function definitions:

1. Phrases: A phrase is a recipe for the specific business logic for theservice, such as installing a MySQL server in a container, obtaining therevocation status for a MySQL rack, or managing the MySQL rack.

2. Periodics: A periodic is a recurring task such as backing up a MySQLdatabase every two minutes, or managing the MySQL rack every fiveminutes. A periodic may be specific to a system service.

3. Tasks: A task is typically a function performed by an orchestrationservice instance 708, 709, and 712 (e.g., in the background) and may beinvoked from phrases or directly from routes. For example, in the MySQLservice container 802, a common task is to install the service containerby spitting up an instance of the MySQL server, or initializing a slavereplica in a MySQL rack (such as when a new slave replica is created onthe new controller that has joined the distributed computing zone).4. Probes: A probe is typically a query to discover some statusinformation about the service in question. As an example of a probe, inMySQL, the probe might ask which MySQL server replica has the floating(or virtual) IP address associated with it.5. Routes: A route may be an endpoint (e.g., an API endpoint typicallyusing the HTTP protocol) for accessing a function definition. Forexample, if a user wants to know the status of a presumably operationalMySQL service container 802, particular embodiments invoke the“get_status” route against the API of the associated orchestrationservice instance, which may invoke the GET operation given a URL thatdescribes the route.6. Election: An election function group is configured only for thosesystem services that are organized in a master-slave relationship, suchas MySQL system service. Other system services, such as Identity orCompute, are organized as peers, and do not require an election. Asdescribed above, an election function definition comprises “elect” and“unelect” functions, which are called by the presence service in thepresent example.

FIG. 15 shows generically a “service-specific personality” feeding intoan orchestration service instances 708, 709, and 712. This personalityis incorporated into a function definition, as described above. Forexample, to obtain a MySQL personality for an orchestration serviceinstance 709, controller node 107 loads the associated MySQL functiondefinitions and configures the orchestration service instance 709. Inthis example, the election function definition is required because aMySQL rack is organized into a master with multiple slaves. The resultis an orchestration service instance 709 specific to managing a MySQLserver replica. FIG. 16 shows an example of the MySQL functiondefinition according to one embodiment. As another example, to obtainthe controller node personality for an orchestration service instance708, controller node 107 loads the associated controller node functiondefinitions and configures orchestration server instance 708accordingly. Finally, as a third example, controller node 107 loads thephysical node function definition into an orchestration service instance712 to obtain the physical node personality.

Example Service Implementation

In one embodiment, the orchestration service is implemented as a largeweb-based application. FIG. 17 illustrates the components that make upone implementation of the orchestration service instance 708, 709, or712 according to one embodiment. A front-end component 1702 fields allorchestration service API operations and may handle multiple,simultaneous operations. A backend component 1704 executes allbackground tasks and periodic tasks, drawn from a queue of tasks 1706submitted by front-end component 1702. Since the end state results ofbackground tasks and periodic tasks are typically transient, they arerecorded on a persistent data store 1708 associated with theorchestration service instance. The present example orchestrationservice server instance is not a single component or even a singleprocess, but a collection of processes that work in concert.

Front-end component 1702 includes an orchestration service API 1710 andtwo separate processes. The methods available on orchestration serviceAPI 1710 vary depending on whether the API fronts the orchestrationservice instance for a controller node 107, a container 802, or aphysical node 102. There is a core set of methods common acrosscontroller nodes 107, containers 802, and physical nodes 102. Forexample, installing a system service 710 in a container 802 andretrieving the status of a task are examples of common methods notpeculiar to a personality. FIG. 17 shows these two methods among othersentering OSI API 1710. In this example, these methods are invoked usingthe HTTP protocol.

A first server 1712 may act as an HTTP server and reverse proxy server.The first server is one of the two separate processes making up thefront-end. A reverse proxy server is a type of proxy server thatretrieves resources on behalf of the client from one or more servers.These resources are then returned to the client as though theyoriginated from the proxy server self. The idea of a reverse proxy isthat it can hide the existence and the characteristics of theoriginating servers. The orchestration service API methods are, in thisexample, HTTP requests using a well-defined URL and HTTP operation suchas put and get. A web server fields these HTTP requests and passes therequests onto the next layer. Any responses to these HTTP requests arereturned to the client that invoked the API method, so the client isdoes not know that the method was actually executed by a collection ofprocesses hiding behind the API.

A second management process is the second of the two separate processesmaking up the front end. Though a reverse proxy server fieldsorchestration service API methods as HTTP requests, it does not itselfhandle multiple simultaneous HTTP requests. The second managementprocess may be a server that manages a dynamic set of worker processesthat execute the individual HTTP requests and responses passed to itfrom a reverse proxy server. In this example, the second managementprocess is implemented using web server gateway interface server 1714.The second management process may be the set of worker processes thatcan execute HTTP requests concurrently. Further, as part of anorchestration service instance, the web server gateway interface process1714 is loaded with at least three of the components of aservice-specific function group, which are the HTTP endpoints fororchestration service: routes, tasks, and probes. In the figure, this isshown as a box labeled “orchestration service (routes, tasks, probes)”under the web server gateway interface process 1714. Each HTTP requestis not necessarily executed immediately. Some, like asking for thestatus of the system service may be executed immediately as asynchronous, or blocking call, since a timely answer is demanded.Others, like initializing a MySQL slave replica, are potentiallytime-consuming tasks, for which the client making the request may nothave the patience to wait for such blocking invocations. These sorts ofrequests are usually executed asynchronously as background tasks. Thoughweb server gateway interface 1714 can accommodate applications makinglong blocking calls or streaming requests and responses asynchronously,an orchestration service instance may instead employ a separate taskqueue 1706. In one example implementation, each task is a programwritten in Python. The web server gateway interface process 1714 submitsthe HTTP requests as individual tasks to a task queue service 1716.

Task queue service 1716 is a message broker. It accepts and forwardsmessages (e.g., as a post office eventually delivers mail to a recipienton behalf of a sender). Each task submitted to the message broker fromthe web server gateway interface 1714 process is assigned a unique taskID and queued for eventual execution. Task queue service 1716 does notexecute any of the submitted tasks, instead, that function is assignedto a background worker process. Task queue 1706 is shared across allother orchestration service instances running on a controller node 107,that is, it is a controller-wide service. Since any task can originatefrom any controller node or any container 802, each task must beuniquely identified across all controller nodes 107 and all containers802 to avoid conflicts in naming a task. The task ID may be a 128-bitUUID, which is highly likely to be unique (and not clash with otherUUIDs) across all controller nodes 107 over a long period of time. Thetasks stored in the task queue 1706 may not be persistent; therefore,the tasks may not survive failure of either the task queue processitself or the controller node 107. Clients may need to reissue their APIoperations when the task queue returns to service.

The other part of the task queue service 1716 is implemented by workerprocesses each of which may be run in the background. Background workerscomprise a set of worker processes, each of which is usually a daemonrun in the background. Each worker process dequeues the next task fromthe task queue and operates on it. This is shown in the figure by the“background worker processes” 1704 operating on the first three tasks inthe queue. Other than reporting success or failure, a worker process mayrecord any end state results of the task in a persistent store 1708 suchas a key-value store. There is a single persistent storage serverprocess for each orchestration service instance. Each end state resultfor an executed task is associated with a task ID such as [taskID,endState]. As long as the task ID is known the end state results can beretrieved given the task ID, as can be seen in FIG. 17 where one of thecore set of orchestration service API methods is obtaining the status ofa task. In this example, the only data that is persistent is the endstate result of an executed task. The data manipulated in memory by aworker process executing a task is not persistent; if the process failsbefore it has completed executing the task then any data it wasoperating on may be lost and presumably the uncompleted task has noeffect on the state of the system. The task may need to be resubmittedby the client.

Some embodiments may process a recurring task, for example, a task thatmust be executed every two minutes. To implement recurring tasks, atime-based task scheduler 1718 executes jobs (commands or shell scripts)to run periodically at certain times or dates (e.g., similar to cron inUNIX-like computer operating systems). This example includes anotherindependent process that kicks off tasks at regular intervals, which arenot executed directly by the background worker processes, but first aresubmitted as tasks to the task queue service 1716 and thereafter aretreated just like any other task that has been enqueued. There may beone such process per orchestration service instance, for example. Thescheduled tasks may be defined in the periodics and tasks of theassociated function group for the system service. An example of aperiodic comes from MySQL where each MySQL server replica is eitherbacked up via a dump or has fetched a backup from the master.

Finally, another purpose of a function group is the “election,” which ismandatory in this example implementation for all system servicesorganized in a master-slave configuration and optional for all othersystem services. When the associated presence service process discoversthat a master for some system service has failed—it determines failurewhen the ephemeral node it was watching is no longer present inblackboard service 804—it “elects” a new master by invoking the electmethod of the election function group associated with the orchestrationservice instance. There is a corresponding unelect method in thefunction group. These two methods are shown in an election process 1720,which corresponds to the election in the function group. The electionprocess includes the “elect” path and the “unelect” path. The electionmay use a backdoor to an orchestration service instance. In thisexample, the “election” part of a function group directly executes theelect and unelect functions.

Note that presence service 902 does not itself elect a new master, butmerely informs the associated orchestration service instance that itshould schedule the election of a new master. The orchestration serviceinstance code delegates leader election to the blackboard service 804;the blackboard service 804 already provides a recipe to correctlyimplement leader election, ensure that a leader will be elected andensure that there will be exactly one leader. In addition, the electmethod may also perform some service-specific functions when theelection complete such as clean up and initialization or, in the case ofMySQL, asserting its mastership and reconfiguring other replicas to beslaves.

Particular embodiments may be implemented in a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium for use by or in connection with theinstruction execution system, apparatus, system, or machine. Thecomputer-readable storage medium contains instructions for controlling acomputer system to perform a method described by particular embodiments.The computer system may include one or more computing devices. Theinstructions, when executed by one or more computer processors, may beoperable to perform that which is described in particular embodiments.

As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow,“a”, “an”, and “the” includes plural references unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein andthroughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and“on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

The above description illustrates various embodiments along withexamples of how aspects of particular embodiments may be implemented.The above examples and embodiments should not be deemed to be the onlyembodiments, and are presented to illustrate the flexibility andadvantages of particular embodiments as defined by the following claims.Based on the above disclosure and the following claims, otherarrangements, embodiments, implementations and equivalents may beemployed without departing from the scope hereof as defined by theclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: generating a first entropyusing a hardware random number generator in a management computer,wherein the management computer is configured to manage a main computer,wherein the main computer controls a physical nodes executing a virtualmachine; transmitting, from the management computer, the first entropyto the main computer; combining, by the main computer the first entropywith a second entropy generated by the main computer to generate a thirdentropy; and transmitting, from the main computer, the third entropy tothe virtual machine executing on the physical node; wherein the methodis performed by at least one device including a hardware processor. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the second entropyin the main computer via a pseudo random number generator.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein combining comprises combining the second entropywith the first entropy, wherein the first entropy and the second entropyare available as the third entropy for use by the virtual machines. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting, from the main computer, thethird entropy to the virtual machine executing on the physical nodecomprises: transmitting, from the main computer, the third entropy tothe physical node; and exposing, by a hypervisor executing on thephysical node, the third entropy in a virtual device emulating anentropy generator.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the virtualmachines is configured to retrieve at least a portion of the thirdentropy from the virtual device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein themanagement computer communicates the first entropy through a firstcommunication network to the main computer.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the main computer communicates the third entropy via a secondcommunication network to the virtual machine.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein a service running on the virtual machine use the third entropyto operate.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the management computerand the main computer are included in a controller node configured tocontrol the physical nodes.
 10. An apparatus comprising: one or morecomputer processors; and the apparatus configured to perform operationscomprising: generating a first entropy using a true random numbergenerator in a management computer, wherein the management computer isconfigured to manage a main computer, wherein the main computer controlsa physical node executing a virtual machines; transmitting, from themanagement computer, the first entropy to the main computer; combining,by the main computer, the first entropy with a second entropy generatedby the main computer to generate a third entropy; and transmitting, fromthe main computer, the third entropy to the virtual machine executing onthe physical node.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, further configured forgenerating the second entropy in the main computer via a pseudo randomnumber generator.
 12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein combiningcomprises combining the second entropy with the first entropy, whereinthe first entropy and the second entropy is available as the thirdentropy for use by the virtual machines.
 13. The apparatus of claim 10,wherein transmitting, from the main computer, the third entropy to thevirtual machine executing on the physical node comprises: transmitting,from the main computer, the third entropy to the physical node; andexposing, by a hypervisor executing on the physical node, the thirdentropy in a virtual device emulating an entropy generator.
 14. Theapparatus of claim 13, wherein the virtual machine is configured toretrieve at least a portion of the third entropy from the virtualdevice.
 15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the management computercommunicates the first entropy through a first communication network tothe main computer.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the maincomputer communicates the third entropy via a second communicationnetwork to the virtual machine.
 17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein aservice executing on the virtual machine uses the third entropy tooperate.
 18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the management computerand the main computer are included in a controller node configured tocontrol the physical node.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium containing instructions, that when executed, control acomputer system to be configured for: generating a first entropy using atrue random number generator in a management computer, wherein themanagement computer is configured to manage a main computer, wherein themain computer controls a physical node executing a virtual machine;transmitting, from the management computer, the first entropy to themain computer; combining, by the main computer, the first entropy with asecond entropy generated by the main computer to generate a thirdentropy; and transmitting, from the main computer, the third entropy tothe virtual machine executing on the physical node.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, furtherconfigured for generating the second entropy in the main computer via apseudo random number generator.